Visits by foreign dignitaries to India are a dime a dozen. But the tour of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, starting today, is very special for both sides. Why? It will help shape the perception of India in the minds of ordinary people back in Britain, because tagging along with Kate and Prince William will be a 63-person strong British press, who will ensure the couple get saturation coverage.
The couple will start in Mumbai, where they will stay at the Taj Mahal Palace hotel. In the evening they will attend a party to which Bollywood stars, captains of industry and various local celebrities have been invited. Tomorrow they will interact with politicians, NGOs and "vulnerable people" in Delhi, before they travel to the Kaziranga National Park in Assam and then move on to meet the King and Queen of Bhutan. They will fly back from Agra on April 16.
The first thing to say is that it was not William and Kate who chose to visit India. William and his younger brother Harry (who is currently in Nepal helping to build homes) have more of a feeling for Africa. The trip was announced last November when Narendra Modi was in London on the day he was having lunch with the Queen.
When Chinese president Xi Jinping visited Britain, Kate was forced to sit next to him at the Buckingham Palace banquet. She was also made to wear a red dress in the colours of the Chinese flag. But for Modi, Cameron went one better and announced that Kate and William would visit India in spring 2016.
There was a significant line in the formal announcement: "The visit is being undertaken at the request of Her Majesty's Government and will be the first time the Duke and Duchess have visited the country." Decoded into plain English that means: "Cameron has done this for his new best friend, Modi."
Since Kate and William are going to be in India, Buckingham Palace is taking the opportunity to correct one of the biggest blunders it has ever made - allowing Princess Diana to go alone to the Taj Mahal in Agra in February 1992, while Charles addressed a business meeting in Delhi.
Here a personal confession would be in order - I got the Taj story completely wrong. I was consulted about what Charles should say in his keynote speech in Delhi - and I suggested he include a reference to the late Lord Mountbatten, from whom he had acquired his love of India and who was still highly regarded in the country where he was the last viceroy. In fact, when Mountbatten was assassinated by the IRA in 1979, India lowered its flags ahead of even Britain, I pointed out. There was a warm reference to his great-uncle in the speech that Charles duly made.
While I was looking at the programme in London something struck me as being distinctly odd. Charles was speaking in Delhi at the same time as Diana was due to be at the Taj in Agra. Surely a mistake, I thought. It wasn't.
"This is a working trip," I was firmly told. I gently explained what I meant: "For Her Royal Highness to be alone at the 'monument of love' would be misunderstood."
At the Taj, Diana did her tour of the mausoleum and sat on the famous marble bench for the agreed photocall. She was asked what she made of the Taj. Her voice was soft, so I asked her to repeat what she had said: "Ma'am, did you say it was a 'feeling experience' or a 'healing experience'?"
"You heard," she responded. I wrote about how she was moved by the beauty of the Taj - and got the story 100 per cent wrong. Everyone else reported that her marriage was on the rocks - and the Taj had been a soothing, healing experience. My editor back in London, Trevor Grove, of The Sunday Telegraph, normally an affable man, was not amused.
This time Kate and William will be very much together in front of the Taj - it will be the page one picture back in Britain in all papers, I predict, with an inset of Diana all alone from 1992. With Charles and Diana, things went from bad to worse on that trip. In Jaipur, he was allowed to win a polo match (Indian hospitality being what it is).
As the winning captain he went to collect the cup from Diana. As he moved forward to give her a little kiss, she turned her head - deliberately.
The late James Whittaker, veteran royal correspondent of the Daily Mirror and in some ways more royal than the royals, was furious with Diana. "The bitch!" he hissed.
There will be no such incident with Kate and William, who seem a normal husband and wife with two young children, George and Charlotte (who have been left behind in Britain).
At the end of the tour, Charles went off to Nepal for a trek, while Diana carried on to Calcutta to keep her appointment at Mother Teresa's home (she was ill and detained in Rome). Calcutta police would not let me through - " khali British press". One of the burly snappers grabbed me by the collar and lifted me in bodily - "he's with us".
As the sisters started singing hymns, it was all too much for poor Diana, who started weeping. And the entire 50-strong British press party wept with her.
Five years later, Diana was killed in a car crash in a Paris tunnel on August 31, 1997. Mother Teresa, who had apparently comforted her, died a few days later on September 5.
William, now 33, was 14 at the time. The foundations of the monarchy were shaken because the royal establishment and notably the Queen were held responsible in some way for the tragedy that had befallen Diana.
But the British monarchy is nothing if not resilient - and William and Kate, as they begin their tour of India, are its future.
As for the Queen, who has been on the throne even longer than Victoria, Empress of India, there will be nationwide celebrations to mark her 90th birthday on April 21. William will pay a warm tribute to his grandmother at a reception the new British high commissioner, Sir Dominic Asquith, is hosting at his residence in Delhi. The India trip is not only about strengthening bilateral relations but also renewing the magic and mystique of the monarchy.
