Prime Minister Narendra Modi left the British MPs and their peers in splits a few times during his address at the Parliament’s Royal Gallery here as he entwined his speech with humour invoking David Beckham to Bhangra rap. Modi’s speech in the British Parliament, the first by an Indian prime minister in the building that once controlled India’s future, displayed a comfortable understanding of the history of the Indo-UK relationship as well as acknowledgment of where it stands today. And Modi did it, in part, by invoking pop-culture.
Thanking the UK Parliament speaker for opening the doors to him, Modi left the house cracking as he said, “I know that the Parliament is not in Session. Prime Minister Cameron looks relaxed and relieved”.
He went on to remind Prime Minister Cameron the slogan – “Phir ek baar, Cameron Sarkar’ – used by him in the British elections earlier this year.
“I want to remind you, Mr. Prime Minister, that you owe me royalty for an election slogan,” he said. Modi said that there are many things on which it is hard to tell anymore if they are British or Indian. “The Jaguar or the Scotland Yard, for example. The Brooke Bond tea or my friend late Lord Ghulam Nun’s curry,” he said.
The Prime Minister said the strongest debates are whether the Lord’s pitch swings unfairly or the wicket at Eden Gardens cracks too early. “And, we love the Bhangra rap from London just as you like the English novel from India,” he said.
Noting that he will be visiting Wembley, which has the iconic football ground where he will be addressing Indian diaspora, Modi said, “Even in India, every young footballer wants to bend it like Beckham”.
(With inputs from PTI)