When India's first prime minister, Ja-waharlal Nehru, visited America in 1949 he spent weeks crossing the country, speaking at universities and calling on Albert Einstein. He was shocked by the commercialism he saw, joking that "one should never visit America for the first time". The new giant of Indian politics, Naren-dra Modi, showed no such qualms on his first official trip on September 26th-30th. He visited politicians and dined with Ba-rack Obama. But he also earlier glad-handed Wall Street chiefs and held a rally in New York's Madison Square Garden for over 18,000 Indian-Americans. It featured screens displaying adoring tweets, and Bollywood dancers in fluorescent uniforms writhing to the rock anthem "Born in the usa". Even Jon Stewart, host of a satirical television show, was impressed. "No world leader has drawn that many Americans for anything. Except maybe one of Berlusconi's bunga-bunga parties."
展开▼
