Delhi is hosting the BRICS Summit, and apparently the capital has decided that the best way to showcase India to the world is to make sure the world doesn’t see too much of India. As global leaders arrive in New Delhi for the September 12–13 summit, parts of the capital have received the kind of makeover usually reserved for a wedding venue five minutes before the guests arrive. Roads have been cleaned, security has been tightened, traffic has been redirected and, in at least one South Delhi settlement, large temporary screens have gone up between an urban neighbourhood and the outside world. Welcome to “Curtain-Raising Diplomacy”, where the city doesn’t merely prepare to host foreign dignitaries—it prepares a carefully edited version of itself for them.
The Curtain Has Fallen, but the Politics Has Risen
The controversy centres on Coolie Camp in Vasant Vihar, where large screens were installed along the settlement before the summit. Residents said similar screens had appeared during the 2023 G20 Summit as well. The current barriers have once again triggered questions about whether poverty is being temporarily moved out of the international camera frame. The installation of screens, by itself, does not establish that the government intended to hide poverty from foreign leaders, and there may be practical explanations for the arrangements. But politically, the imagery is almost too perfect to resist. Nothing says “Welcome to New Delhi” quite like a giant wall saying, “Please admire the other side.”
The arrangement has created an accidental masterpiece of urban irony. On one side is an international summit discussing cooperation, development, resilience and sustainability. On the other are residents wondering why their homes suddenly require a visual firewall. It is diplomacy with a partition. The people behind the screens haven’t vanished; they have simply become invisible to passing traffic and, conveniently, to certain camera angles.
BRICS Gets a New Meaning: “Banners Rather Than Real Issues, Conference Style”
BRICS already sounds like the name of a construction company, so Delhi’s temporary infrastructure appears to have taken the acronym rather literally. The summit is expected to focus on cooperation, development and global challenges. Those are impressive words, but apparently none of them received the memo about the curtain.
Imagine the summit brochure: Resilience means people continuing to live and work despite difficult circumstances. Innovation means discovering a temporary screen-based solution to the problem of visibility. Cooperation means everybody agreeing that the curtain is definitely temporary. And sustainability means perhaps reusing the same concept from the G20. That’s not merely international diplomacy. That’s sustainable political irony.
The residents of Coolie Camp have reportedly seen this cinematic production before. During preparations for the G20 Summit in 2023, similar screens were placed around the settlement. Now, with BRICS arriving, the sequel has apparently been released. “Curtain 2: BRICS Behind the Scenes.” Hollywood has franchises. Delhi has international-summit curtains.
Pawan Khera Adds a “Veil” of Politics
Congress leader Pawan Khera seized on the optics, arguing that the government’s approach reflects selective attitudes toward coverings. His “not all hijabs are unacceptable” remark was intended as a political jab at the BJP’s positions and rhetoric around the hijab. And thus Indian politics discovered yet another fascinating property of the English language: a cover can be clothing, a cover can be a curtain, a cover can be a story and, apparently, a cover can become a political strategy.
The only thing missing is a government press conference announcing a new national policy: “If reality looks inconvenient, please cover responsibly.”
Of course, politicians from every side have spent decades mastering the ancient art of selective visibility. Governments love showing flyovers and metro lines. Opposition parties love showing potholes and garbage. One side points the camera toward progress; the other points it toward everything progress forgot. Delhi’s latest curtain controversy simply gives that eternal political argument a physical object. For once, the metaphor has actually been installed on the roadside.
“Nothing to See Here” Becomes the Official Tourism Campaign
There is something deeply amusing about the idea of a city preparing to impress international leaders by hiding portions of itself. A foreign delegation arrives. They see beautifully maintained roads, security arrangements, banners and a polished capital. And somewhere nearby, behind a ten-foot screen, Delhi whispers, “Please don’t look backstage.”
It is the diplomatic equivalent of inviting guests home and putting all the laundry into one room before opening the front door. Except here, the laundry is not laundry. It is people’s homes. That is where the satire becomes uncomfortable—and therefore useful.
The residents aren’t props in a summit presentation. They are citizens of the same city hosting the summit. They don’t disappear simply because a curtain appears. The curtain hides the settlement from the road. It doesn’t hide the settlement from reality.
The International Summit Meets the Indian Wedding Formula
Indian weddings have taught us an important lesson: before the guests arrive, anything remotely embarrassing must be covered. A broken wall gets a decorative cloth. Construction material gets moved somewhere out of sight. An unfinished room gets locked. And the relative who asks uncomfortable questions gets seated strategically near the dessert counter.
Delhi has now apparently upgraded that formula for international diplomacy: Problem visible? Put up a screen.
It is almost genius. Why spend years solving a complicated urban problem when you can solve its visibility in a few days? Poverty cannot be eliminated overnight. But its camera angle can apparently be adjusted.
And that is the real punchline.
The “Make Delhi Look Good” Olympics
There is nothing inherently wrong with wanting a city to look clean and presentable when international visitors arrive. Every host city does some form of beautification and preparation. The problem begins when beautification becomes difficult to distinguish from concealment.
Cleaning a road is one thing. Cleaning a road while placing a wall between the road and people living beside it creates an entirely different visual message. It says, “We have prepared the city for the visitors.”
The obvious question is: “Have we prepared the city for the people?”
That question doesn’t belong exclusively to one political party. It belongs to every government that has ever discovered the magical relationship between an international summit and suddenly urgent urban beautification.
Delhi’s walls, banners, barricades and curtains may all come down after the summit. The residents, however, will still be there. Their jobs will still be there. Their homes will still be there. Their problems will still be there. And, presumably, their ability to see through a curtain will remain disappointingly limited.
BRICS, But Make It “Behind the Curtain”
The irony is almost Shakespearean. BRICS is supposed to provide a platform for major emerging economies to discuss global challenges and cooperation. Meanwhile, Delhi is having a very local discussion: “Can we please move this challenge somewhere outside the camera frame?”
Perhaps the next BRICS agenda should include a new diplomatic category called “Urban Reality Management.”Delegates could discuss how to make inequality less visible without actually making inequality less real.
The official minutes could read: Resolution One: Put up curtains. Resolution Two: Put up more curtains. Resolution Three: If anyone asks what’s behind the curtains, call it urban innovation.
The possibilities are endless.
The Final Curtain
The Delhi controversy is ultimately less about fabric and more about visibility. A curtain can hide a wall. A screen can hide a settlement. A camera angle can hide poverty. But none of them can make the underlying problem disappear.
India can host world leaders with confidence. It can showcase its infrastructure, ambitions, economic strength and diplomatic importance. But a genuinely confident city should not need to pretend that its uncomfortable corners don’t exist.
Because eventually, every international summit ends. The barricades come down. The banners disappear. The VIP convoy leaves. The television cameras move on. And the curtain comes down.
Unfortunately, reality doesn’t.
Perhaps Delhi’s next big infrastructure project shouldn’t be another curtain—it should be a city where nobody needs one.
Until then, BRICS has taught us an important lesson in modern diplomacy: when you can’t hide the problem forever, at least make sure the curtain matches the summit branding.
Indian Editor – News With a Wink
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