New Delhi seems to be in no mood to cooperate with the US secretary of state John Kerry who’s in town for the second Indo-US strategic and commercial dialogue.
Rains are playing spoilsport with what could be Kerry’s last visit to India’s capital city representing the Obama administration.
On Aug. 29, he landed in Delhi only to be welcomed by a massive downpour that caused water-logging at many places in the city, bringing it to a standstill. Kerry’s motorcade was reportedly stuck in a resultant traffic jam for hours.
There was no separate VIP route for Kerry’s convoy as such arrangements are made only for heads of state.
Here’s how Delhi looked around the time when Kerry landed here:
That wasn’t the end of Kerry’s rainy nightmare.
Today (Aug. 31), Kerry’s plan to visit religious sites in Delhi was reportedly cancelled due to the heavy rains. He was scheduled to visit Sheesh Ganj Gurdwara, Gauri Shankar Temple, and Jama Masjid in the densely-populated Old Delhi area.
For over two hours on the morning of Aug. 31, Delhi received torrential rainfall, resulting in serpentine traffic jams at various places. All flights coming to and leaving from Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International airport were reportedly delayed due to bad weather.
Residents and office goers have been sharing images of the city’s condition on social media, with #DelhiRains even trending on Twitter since morning.
Students and officials at the Indian Institute of Technology in south Delhi were lucky, though. For Kerry did make it there for an interactive event. And it was surprising that the secretary of state had things to say about the downpour in the city.
Having been delayed again, he got the gathering crackling, saying, “Don’t know how you all got here. You must’ve needed boats to get here.”