"TOUCH MY VEST,” NARENDRA MODI told a startled Newsweek team interviewing the Indian prime minister in his residence in New Delhi in late March. “Come on, touch it.” Modi challenged Nancy Cooper, Newsweek’s global editor in chief, to guess what the blue jacket was made of. Cooper suggested silk. “It’s recycled plastic bottles,” Modi said, clearly enjoying the reaction of his surprised guests.
The vest and the moment are vintage Modi: innovation, tradition, masterful messaging and, inevitably, some controversy. The vest was made popular by India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, whose great-grandson Rahul Gandhi is leading the opposition campaign to prevent Modi from winning a rare third term in elections next week. It became known as the “Nehru Jacket” and was a symbol of newly independent India’s national pride as well as a fashion statement adopted by The Beatles and Sammy Davis Jr. Unlike Nehru, who preferred beiges and grays, Modi wears his modified version of the garment in brilliant hues. Indian retailers began selling “Modi Jackets” to capitalize on the prime minister’s enormous personal popularity. And in 2018, when former South Korean President Moon Jae-in tweeted out his thanks for the prime minister’s gift of perfectly tailored “Modi Vests”—not “Nehru Jackets”—the controversy nearly broke the Indian internet.
“Whatever you can rightly say about India, the opposite is also true,” the Cambridge economist Joan Robinson once said. Modi, like the country he leads, is full of apparent contradictions. A relentless modernizer, Modi embraces the past. He speaks with equal pride of digital payments, green technology and his role in an ancient 11-day ritual to bring a revered Hindu deity to life. Modi merchandises his brand like a celebrity with T-shirts, mugs and caps, and yet appeals to ordinary Indians by picking up trash from the beach or sweeping the streets. Perhaps uniquely among leaders of major powers, he wins praise from
