Poverty hidden behind a curtain: Modi’s Gujarat model

White curtains were put up on the roads from Ahmedabad to Sabarmati on Thursday as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson made an official visit to Gujarat. The curtains that were meant to hide the slum dwellings and the lives of the country’s poorest, showed what Modi’s Gujarat model actually is.

However, people living in the thatched houses also lifted the curtains when they had to step out, exposing their living conditions.

Journalists and leaders questioned Modi asking him what it was that he wanted to hide from the UK PM. Having been the chief minister of Gujarat for 12 years, and then India’s PM for the last eight, has he not been able to develop Gujarat enough to not be embarrassed by it in front of official dignitaries of other nations.

However, this is not the first time Gujarat’s reality was hidden behind a facade. A similar thing happened when US President Donald Trump visited India in early 2020.