Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese were greeted with loud cheers at the cricket stadium in Ahmedabad as they did a lap of honour prior to the fourth test match of the Border-Gavaskar trophy between India and Australia. While Congress criticised the lap of honour by the prime minister at the Narendra Modi stadium by calling it “height of self-obsession”, BJP hailed the event as “cricket diplomacy.”
“Doing a lap of honour in a stadium you named after yourself in your own lifetime— height of self-obsession,” Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh in a tweet. BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya shared a photograph from the event and said, “Cricket diplomacy. It works.”
Modi and Albanese did a lap of honour across the ground on a specially designed golf car to mark the occasion of 75 years of friendship between India and Australia. The two leaders handed over Test caps to their respective team captains Rohit Sharma and Steve Smith, met players from both sides and stood along side them when the national anthems of India and Australia were sung. The two prime ministers also visited the ‘Hall of Fame museum at the Narendra Modi stadium.
Albanese arrived in Ahmedabad on Wednesday evening and attended some programmes, including a visit to Sabarmati Ashram, the former home of Mahatma Gandhi which also served as one of the main centres of India’s freedom struggle, while Modi reached his home state late last night.
Albanese later announced that his country and the Indian government have finalised the Australia-India Education Qualification Recognition Mechanism. He made the announcement at a program where it was officially announced that Australia’s Deakin University would set up an international branch campus at GIFT City in Gujarat’s Gandhinagar. “There is a significant development in our bilateral education relation. I am pleased to tell you that we have finalised Australia-India Education Qualification Recognition Mechanism,” he said.
