Cultural exchange has a new name: Modi kurta. Back in January, US President Barack Obama said he wanted to wear one. Mozambique President Filipe J. Nyusi went shopping for one when he visited Gujarat in August. The foreign press have written several articles on it. Modi could be the next Jackie O of political fashion.


Now, according to an Indian Express report, the ministry of external affairs has asked the 54 heads of state set to attend the India-Africa Forum Summit in Delhi next month to send in their measurements. The idea is to fit them all out in the prime minister’s signature kurtas and pyjamas. Fifty four Modi kurtas all in a row will make for a great photo op, the ministry feels.


Probably because the garment comes with a story that is tailormade for the National Democratic Alliance government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party. In answer to a question at a function on the eve of Teacher’s Day this year, the prime minister explained the origins of the Modi kurta to his young audience.


Once upon a Modi kurta

Modi said that he had left home when he was young and travelled from place to place. All his worldly belongings fit into a small bag and sleeves took up too much space. So he chopped them in half. In those days, the prime minister recalls, he used to iron his own clothes. A lota of coal had to stand in for a proper iron. He remembers washing the kurtas in the lake and using chalk from classrooms to colour over the stains. But even when he had little, he believed in being neat and clean, in looking smart and dressing for the occasion. Oh and he never had a designer. (Did someone say Troy Costa? Anti-nationals, all.) The Modi kurta was born out of necessity.


All kinds of political messages are woven into the garment. Self-reliance and hard work, the desire to live well and look your best even under straitened circumstances. The spirit of innovation and the distance travelled by that young boy who ironed his own clothes. Jade Blue, tailors to Modi since 1989, says polyester khadi was the prime minister material of choice in the early days. The blend was cheaper than normal khadi and didn’t wrinkle as easily, ideal for a young Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh pracharak on the move. It’s all there – swadeshi meets industrial efficiency, the aspirational politics of the Bharatiya Janata party combined with the austerity of a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh pracharak.


Today, the Modi kurta has two accounts on Twitter (though neither says much). The online shopping portal, Modimania, advertises the garment in various colours and patterns. Indian manufacturers are reportedly keen to export it. Jade Blue had an annual turnover of Rs 180 crore from the kurtas, and that was before Modi became prime minister.


Dress up diplomacy

But how does the political branding of a party translate as diplomatic gesture?


Visiting dignitaries being made to wear the traditional dress of the host country is an old diplomatic practice. Former American President George Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin pulled on ponchos in Chile. Jimmy Carter rocked his striped robes in Ghana. Prince William and his wife, Kate Middleton, famously wore the wrong traditional dress when visiting the Solomon islands (they were got up in the national attire of the Cook Islands, instead).


These extreme sartorial challenges may be faintly belligerent (Putin in a poncho looks like a man in great pain) but all is fair in love and foreign affairs. The point is, the visiting dignitary is supposed to resemble a native of that place. The 54 heads of state from Africa might just end up resembling Modi, instead.


The BJP might want to rethink its strategy of customising everything from education to foreign policy. Narendra Modi will be receiving his African counterparts as the head of a diverse country, not as a star leader of the BJP. And his guests, as he says, must be dressed for the occasion.