Visitors to the exhibition stalls and the exhibitors themselves were in for a pleasant surprise, much to their delight. The business talks inside the stalls were broken as a swarm of people began trooping in and there was frenzied activity all around. Yes, they could not believe their eyes. For, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was amid them flanked by his retinue of security personnel.
Finding Modi before them, up, close and quite personal, those around did not lose even a moment and lo and behold, the mobile phones and ipads were out, as they began taking pictures with him and around him even as Modi’s security staff tried to ward off the people from coming anywhere near him. “Please don’t crowd or come near him, make way,” they constantly called at the crowd even as they busily kept them at bay.
Modi, nonchalantly and impervious to the hustle he had bestirred by his presence, visited various stalls at the AB Hanger and C Hanger. He strode straight to the Israel pavilion and was given a briefing by the Israeli officials to which Modi gave a patient hearing. He then marched on to the Russian pavilion and the US stall before heading to the HAL stall. There, too, Modi had a long chat with officials briefing him and taking him through a tour of the company’s exhibitors, before he sat in his black armour-plated bullet-proof sedan BMW7 and was whisked away for other engagements of the day.
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