PM Narendra Modi's US visit: Time to get primed on song and drama

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has hopefully been properly primed on pop culture references ahead of his second trip to the US. Considering Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi alluded to the legendary Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in his address to party colleagues in Uttar Pradesh hours before jetting off to a conference in the US, it seems he has been doing some preparatory homework. The PM has also surely noted that the Chinese president Xi Jinping, also touring the presently VIP-saturated US, spiced up his address to business leaders in Seattle this week with references to American literary stalwarts from Mark Twain and Walt Whitman to Henry David Thoreau and Ernest Hemingway. His mention of the hit TV series House of Cards and cult movie Sleepless in Seattle was also clever.

Mr Modi may not have had the time to binge-watch any Emmy favourites. But as even his evocation of the venerable Star Wars benediction was well received in 2014, this time he could turn to his Swachh Bharat nominee and Bollywood star Priyanka Chopra — currently the face of a heavily-promoted forthcoming TV series in the US — or even Indian-American doctor-cum-singer Rupa Marya who has just wrested ‘Happy Birthday’ from the copyright clutches of Warner/Chappel for a bit of contemporary nous.