John Kerry Bows Down to Rain and Traffic in Delhi
“Atithi Devo Bhava” . Well, tell that to the heavy rains in Delhi. The heavy downpour and vehicular congestion in the national capital spares no one. Not even the VVIP’s like John Kerry. As troublesome as it gets for him , it’s about time we question a lot of things.
With the climate change high on the agenda for US State Secretary John Kerry ironically on his fourth visit to India, his motorcade became the victim of Delhi’s rain-induced traffic jam.
US secretary of state John Kerry arrived in New Delhi on 29th August to participate in the 2nd Indo-US strategic and commercial dialogue ( S & CD’s ) which was held on Tuesday for the first time in India .
Indian External Affairs minister, Sushma Swaraj and Commerce and Industry Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman along with John Kerry co-chaired the second strategic and commercial dialogue and discussed upon our nation’s shared priority issues like generation of sustainable economic growth, creating jobs, climate change, betterment of livelihoods, business improvement, taking into account the rules sustaining the global order.
This was the last time John Kerry had the privilege of leading the dialogue and he left no space for doubt when it comes to his confidence on battling the issues that can bring changes like never before, with climate change topping the list.
“US stands with India on terrorism no matter where it comes from.”
India and US signed a significant landmark agreement to share military bases for research and repair and decided to resolve the issues on terrorism and other issues of national and international concern with Sushma and Kerry leading their respective sides at the annual dialogue. Further, Mr Kerry vividly mentioned, “US stands with India on terrorism no matter where it comes from.”
However as ironic as it gets, on the day of his arrival in new Delhi, John Kerry faced a massive rain-induced traffic jam near the Delhi airport.
Heavy downpour in the national capital spared no one and lead to water logging in most of the areas thus causing the roads to flood with vehicles, Kerry’s motorcade being one of them. Instead of driving smoothly on roads, he got delayed in the traffic crawl after he landed. Delhi police had to be called in at this choked rush hour given the VVIP stuck in the jam like everybody else.
Waterlogging has always hampered Delhi in ways worse than the downpour itself leading to hours-long traffic jams. Journalist Nicholas Wadhams, travelling with John Kerry even tweeted the Delhi police whilst stuck in traffic. This affected the nation’s awareness and concern about climate-related issues obstructively since waterlogging and traffic jams are problems that can be solved if the administration knows how to set the rules and play the fair game. It was highly unusual since the VVIP’s are given a clear passage.
With the media having fun at the cost of Kerry’s nightmare, it’s high time they also think about shedding some light on the actual problem .
Feature Image Source: NYDailyNews.com
