A lot of eyeballs were raised on Twitter and many people expressed surprise as the U.S. President Donald Trump left a message in the visitors’ book at Sabarmati Ashram without any mention of Mahatma Gandhi.
In the book, Mr. Trump wrote, “To my great friend Prime Minister Modi. Thank you for this wonderful visit.”
Mr. Trump, who reached Ahmedabad on Monday for the first leg of his India tour, visited the Ashram along with wife Melania minutes after he landed in Ahmedabad.
A view of the Sabarmati Ashram’s visitors’ book signed by the U.S. President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump during their visit to Sabarmati Ashram.
After noticing no mention of Mahatma Gandhi in the message by Mr. Trump, netizens took to Twitter, comparing his note with that of the former U.S. President Barack Obama.
When Mr. Obama visited the Mani Bhavan – where Gandhi used to stay while in Mumbai – in south Mumbai in 2010, his note in the visitors’ book read: “I am filled with hope and inspiration as I have the privilege to view this testament to Gandhi’s life. He is a hero not just to India but to the world.”
Five years later, in January 2015, after visiting the Raj Ghat in Delhi, Mr. Obama wrote, “What Dr. Martin Luther King Jr said then remains true today. The spirit of Gandhi is very much alive in India today. And it remains a great gift to the world. May we always live in the spirit of love and peace among all people and nations.”
Congress leader Manish Tewari tweeted: And this is what @barackobama had to say about the Great Mahatma possibly at Rajghat or Sabarmati. The distinction can not be more stark.”
Tapas Dey (@TapasDeyINC), former Tripura MLA, tweeted: “No mention of Bapu Mahatma Gandhi Ji in the visitor’s book of Sabarmati Ashram, instead Mr. President @realDonaldTrump express his love to @narendramodi.”
Another Twitter user Martin Joseph (@martinjmsw1) tweeted about Mr. Trump’s hand writing.
“President Trumps comments in the visitor book of Sabarmati Ashram. The letters must be either in uppercase or lowercase but he used randomly mixed capitalization in writing. Its known StudlyCaps. He must repeat his High school Grammar classes.”
