What does a travelling Prime Minister do when accused by the Opposition of hypocrisy over his call for austerity, and hounded by the world’s media for avoiding news conferences? “Melody khao, khud jaan jao!”
On the second day of Narendra Modi’s Rome visit, his Italian counterpart and fellow Right-winger Giorgia Meloni posted on X a video of him gifting her a packet of Indian Melody toffees.
The brand name is a homophone of “Melodi”, a meme-verse portmanteau of the two Premiers’ names that underscores their visible camaraderie during their seven meetings over the last three years and a half.
Meloni had herself used “Melodi” during the COP28 in Dubai in 2023 to describe a photo of herself with Modi. And Modi wrote a foreword to Meloni’s memoirs, published last year, which he described as her “Mann ki Baat”.
While the unlisted Mumbai-based food MNC Parle Products, which makes Melody toffees, basked in the limelight, an unlikely beneficiary was the listed
infrastructure firm Parle Industries — unrelated to the Melody maker.
Parle Industries’ share price jumped by five per cent, hitting the bourse-permitted upper limit for the day, with investors having
apparently mixed up the two companies.
In the video that Meloni posted on Wednesday, she says: “Prime Minister Modi brought us a gift. A very, very good toffee.”
Modi is then seen lifting the packet up and saying “Melody” as they both laugh.
In about six hours, the video drew more than 110 million views on Meloni’s social media accounts and tens of thousands of reposts. As if on cue, memes flooded the Internet.
The Opposition continued to question Modi’s departure abroad immediately after preaching austerity to Indians and projected the “Melody” moment as proof that his trip was short on seriousness business. But Indian social media seemed happy.
Photos and videos of #Melodi at Rome’s tourist spots — with romantic Bollywood songs as the soundtrack — overshadowed the videos showing Norwegian journalist Helle Lyng pressing Modi to take media questions, and Indian diplomat Sibi George lecturing her on Indian history when quizzed about India’s human rights record.
Italy's PM Meloni meets Indian PM Modi, in Rome Reuters
The BJP shared the clip, calling it an example of “PM Modi’s sense of humour”.
Parle pitch
While stock-exchange glory bypassed the unlisted Parle Products, the company revelled in the limelight. It shared the Melody video on Instagram with the caption: “Sweetening relationships since 1983.”
Company vice-president Mayank Shah appeared on several TV channels to thank the Prime Minister for lifting the brand to “a different league”.
He said distributors would push the sweet urgently to meet the expected spikein demand.
The Vijay Kantilal Chauhan-led Parle Products, which traces the origin of the company’s name from the Mumbai suburb of Vile Parle, makes a host of other confectionery and bakery goods, including Poppins and the nation’s leading biscuit brand Parle-G.
Union commerce minister Piyush Goyal wrote on his social media pages: “India’s toffee tale would surely be a melody to the ears! Exports have grown by nearly 166% since 2013-14.”
In the last fiscal, India exported ₹132 crore worth of toffees. Melody is available in 100 countries.
Modi is visiting Italy at Meloni’s invitation to strengthen bilateral cooperation in trade, defence, clean energy and technology.
After a meeting on Wednesday at the 17th-century Villa Doria Pamphili, the two leaders were to plant a black mulberry tree in the gardens of the villa as a symbolic gesture of friendship.
But the duo did not seem to be singing from the same song sheet throughout. Meloni on Wednesday took to X to condemn Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir for mistreating members of the latest aid flotilla to Gaza that Israel has intercepted.
Modi has remained silent on Israeli atrocities throughout the West Asia conflict.
(Additional reporting by Reuters, PTI)