India’s ‘Modi vest’: the latest fashion in foreign policy
- From Singapore’s ex-PM Goh Chok Tong to South Korea’s Moon Jae-in, Asia’s leaders are taken by Modi’s signature outfit, which is still a divisive topic at home
When it comes to cultural diplomacy, history is teeming with creative examples of countries exercising their soft power. Ancient Egypt’s Queen Cleopatra is said to have gifted Julius Caesar, emperor of Rome, with a giraffe, an animal native to Africa. The first of its kind to reach Rome, the giraffe was received as an exotic curiosity and called a “cameleopard” due to its spotted appearance. Thousands of years later, in 1912, Japan gifted 3,000 of its prized cherry blossom trees to Washington, where they remain to this day and bloom in a sea of pink each spring.
Culturally-oriented gifts to faraway lands continue to be a theme of modern diplomacy. China leases its prized furry pandas to other nations; Cuba gives away its renowned Cuban cigars; and now, India is adding “Modi vests,” popularised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to the list of signature gifts exchanged between nations.
In June, Singapore’s former prime minister Goh Chok Tong was seen in a charcoal grey version of the vest when he and Modi, who was visiting Singapore at the time, paid their respects to Mahatma Gandhi at Clifford Pier – one of several places in the world where the Indian activist’s ashes were scattered following his death in 1948.
In an interview with the South China Morning Post, Goh mentioned his fondness for the garment, explaining how it keeps him warm in Singapore’s air-conditioned spaces, and suggested the vest could start “an India fashion fever” in the city state.
Goh is not the only public figure to be a self-proclaimed fan of the collared button-up vest. On Wednesday, which was coincidentally Halloween, South Korean President Moon Jae-in tweeted a photo of himself wearing a dark grey cotton-spun version of Modi’s signature vest.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India sent me some gorgeous garments,” wrote Moon on Twitter. “These are modernised versions of traditional Indian costume, known as the ‘Modi Vest’, that can also be worn easily in Korea. They fit perfectly.”
The post caused a stir among Indian Twitter users, who immediately corrected the president by pointing out that the garment is better known as a “Nehru jacket,” named after India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, a well-loved public figure and protégé of Gandhi.
Others accused Modi of trying to claim the vest as his own, despite its association with former prime minister Nehru.