Style Over Substance? Delhi Gets G20 Makeover As Modi Seeks To Position India As A Global Player

Their city, say the residents of Delhi, has never looked so pristine. As some of the world's most powerful leaders Rishi Sunak and Joe Biden among them descend on India's capital this weekend for the G20 leaders' summit, a frantic, and to some controversial, beautification effort has been in force.

- Hannah Ellis-Petersen

Gone are the poverty-stricken families often living in makeshift shelters along the roads and underpasses. Gone too are the drowsy street dogs that usually line every pavement. Slums and unofficial housing have been bulldozered and about 300,000 street vendors have been evicted from central thoroughfares.

In their place stand new lion statues and fountains erected on roundabouts with beds abundant with flowers. In the coming days, dozens of people will be stationed outside Delhi's prominent venues and hotels to make the noises of langur monkeys, in an attempt to keep the smaller rhesus monkeys away from the guests. And thousands of police have been tasked with - among other things -protecting the 700,000 new potted plants placed across the capital.

It is widely acknowledged that few countries have made such a spectacle of hosting the G20. In cities, towns, airports, train stations and highways across the country, it is hard to travel even a few metres without encountering a billboard or ad showing the prime minister, Narendra Modi, declaring India the "mother of democracy", and asserting that "now is the time for an ambitious and decisive G20".