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What's on India's gift list for US President Donald Trump?

Last Updated 23 February 2020, 11:21 IST

Gifts can sow seeds of friendship, but in the case of US President Donald Trump and PM Narendra Modi, they are likely to strengthen their bond.

Ahead of President Donald Trump's visit, India has prepared a list of gifts that will be presented to him. Trump will be gifted a spinning wheel, two books on the life and times of Mahatma Gandhi and a portrait of the Father of the Nation during his visit to the Sabarmati Ashram on February 24.

Trump will be accompanied by PM Modi during his visit to the Ashram located on the banks of the river Sabarmati and he will be the first US president to visit the Ashram.

"We will gift Trump a spinning wheel, Gandhiji's autobiography and a book named 'My Life My Message'. This book is based on an exhibition depicting Gandhiji's entire life. The ashram would also gift Gandhiji's portrait to Trump. Along with the charkha, we will give him a note describing its importance in the country's freedom struggle," Amrut Modi, Ashram trustees, told PTI.

The Ashram, also known as Gandhi Ashram, was home to the independence movement leader and peace icon from 1917 to 1930. It is now managed by the Sabarmati Ashram Preservation and Memorial Trust.

The gesture to present gifts to foreign Presidents is not new. When the former US President Barack Obama visited India, PM Modi had presented Obama a telegram facsimile from the US to India's Constituent Assembly in 1946 and reproduction of the cover page of a report on India's Constitutional Debates. PM Modi also presented him a framed photograph of Marian Anderson's radio interview in India and a hand-carved wooden Jali box with a small wooden latch and a photo of Marian Anderson's radio interview in India on the lid among others.

In 2015, when PM Modi visited the United States, Obama gifted him a compilation of speeches made at the World Parliament of Religions held in Chicago in 1893. The volume was specially reprinted for Modi. Obama's gift seemed to have moved PM Modi and sowed the seeds of their friendship.

(With inputs from PTI)

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(Published 21 February 2020, 11:09 IST)

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