Modi Visits Bhutan to Inaugurate Adani Hydro Power Plant

Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Bhutan for two days on Sunday 15 June and Monday 16 June. It was his first trip abroad. He went to the Himalayan Kingdom in a small plane just six wire agency journos and one businessman (Gautam Adani). The visit was deliberated kept low profile with little news by way of official briefing. Critics say that visit was an “Adani Show” to promote the fellow Gujarati in Bhutan.

(Modi’s push to invite South Asian leaders to his swearing in function and exchanged of friendly letters with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was to re-establish India as the dominant power in the region. External Affairs minister Sushma Swaraj is on her way to Bangladesh after meeting Indian diplomats posted in the South Asian region.)

China has been building ports in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and its and Pakistan. The Land of the Dragon overtook India as the biggest foreign investor in Nepal in the first six months of this year. Bhutan too could follow, India fears.

Modi, opened a Supreme Court building in Bhutan constructed with Indian assistance.

On Monday he laid the foundation of the Adani 600 megawatt hydroelectric power station, a part of a plan to feed demand in Bhutan, and also India. The Adani Group has a virtual monopoly on all power projects in Bhutan.

Modi’s talks with Bhutan’s King Jigme Kesar Wangchuk and Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay were fruitful, says officials.

Hundreds of school children dressed in traditional red and green tunics lined the route from the airport to wave the Indian flag as Modi’s motorcade arrived in the Kingdom.

Bhutan, the size of Switzerland and with a population of 750,000, has only recently emerged from centuries of isolation. Its first road was built in 1962 and television and the Internet arrived in 1999.

The country made the transition from absolute monarchy to parliamentary democracy in 2008, is struggling with high unemployment and a growing national debt.

As a gesture of goodwill, India lifted food export quotas to Bhutan at the risk of exposing its own consumer to price rise and border smuggling.