What’s in a name? Plenty, apparently, if the name forms golden-yellow pin stripes on a bespoke bandhgala worn with a checked pocket square, as you casually pour tea for the American president. “Say my name, say my name”, Destiny’s Child once sang, and the prime minister channelled the same chutzpah as he settled down for chai pe charcha with Barack Obama on Sunday afternoon. Never mind the nuclear deal. The substance, this presidential visit, is very much in the style. Fashion, one might say, is the name of the game, or is it the game of the name?
Michelle Obama started it as she sashayed down the airplane steps in a Bibhu Mahapatra dress. It said sensitive couture, it said tribute to Indian fashion, it said I’ve done my homework. But as Narendra Modi entertained the Obamas clad head to toe in Narendra Modi, nobody was in any doubt about what his style statement said. It said, well, Narendra Modi. Leader of the world’s largest democracy, winner of a record mandate, the Gujarat chief minister who was once denied a US visa and is now the first Indian prime minister to invite an American president for Republic Day. There is, of course, the danger that it could also say Hosni Mubarak, who wore a similar suit in 2009. But Modi is a leader of a different stripe, even though, like the deposed Egyptian dictator, he wore himself on his sleeve.
Brand Modi made its debut with the summer collection of 2014, when NaMo kurtas, NaMo jackets, NaMo chai and even NaMo balm became all the rage. With the bespoke bandhgala, the PM has added a semiotic twist to the tale. NaMo became NaamO and the man, quite literally, embodied the brand.
