Singaporean PM Said No To A VIP Convoy And Hopped Onto A Bus Instead!
Thumbs up!
By Tang Ruxyn — 06 Oct 2016, 01:39 PM
Singaporean PM Lee Hsien Loong is on a working visit in India and he has quickly made headlines for all the right reasons - he ditched a VIP convoy to ride on a bus!
Lee arrived at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi, India on Monday, 3 October for a five-day visit at the invitation of his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi.
As the Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee could have chosen to be escorted in an official entourage of official cars. Instead, the humble Singaporean PM decided to break tradition and opted to take a chartered bus to his hotel from the airport with his wife Ho Ching, a number of key ministers and senior officials who accompanied him on this trip.
India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) sang praises of the Singaporean PM
"It has been easier for us from the point of view of protocol and security to manage one bus instead of 20 cars in a cavalcade," an MEA official was quoted as saying.
"This shows how humble and practical he is," the official added.
Needless to say, Singaporeans were very proud of their country's PM for taking the humble route, especially during such a high-profile occasion
PM Lee is pretty well known to be a rather simple and humble leader.
In November last year, he dined at a simple no-frills restaurant in Singapore's Little India with the Indian PM.
Lee and his wife, Ho Ching took Narendra Modi for a late dinner at Indian vegetarian restaurant Komala Vilas on Serangoon Road when the Indian premier was in Singapore for a two-day visit to mark 50 years of diplomatic ties between the two countries.
They shared a good time over plain thosai, a vegetarian spread of idli (a rice cake consisting of fermented black lentils) and vadai (savoury fritters). Ho Ching also ordered onion and masala thosai for Modi and Lee to try. They also reportedly had traditional Indian drinks - sweet yoghurt lassi, mango lassi and lime juice - for their hearty meal.
