Private lunch with the Queen and speech at Wembley: How London is preparing for Modi's visit

Nine Red Arrows will leave a colour trail of fumes forming the Indian tricolour when they will fly over the prestigious Wembley Stadium in London on Friday. That’s when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses the 70,000 strong diaspora. All nine Red Arrows display pilots are fast jet pilots from frontline Royal Air Force squadrons. Flying distinctive Hawk jets, the team is made up of pilots, engineers and essential support staff with frontline, operational experience. Soaring equally high is the rhetoric from Prime Minister David Cameron, who hosted a Diwali reception at his official residence, 10 Downing Street, on Tuesday. Cameron was quoted as saying that he is eagerly looking forward to meet the most popular politician on planet earth. So much for Bihar. Modi is on a roll here in the UK. It’s all curry and nice. Cameron said the Ministry of Defence has scrambled to find the right colour of saffron for the Red Arrows to match with the colours of the Indian flag. [caption id=“attachment_2504114” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  The team of Nine Red Arrows who will perform at Wembley the night PM Modi addresses the Indian diaspora in London. Image source: http://www.raf.mod.uk/reds/[/caption] “I think it’s going to be spectacular. We are going to see, for the first time ever, the Red Arrows flying but with the colours of the Indian flag,” Cameron said. “I can’t tell you how many officials it took in the MoD to find the orange smoke – it was one of the most complicated procurement acts we had in recent times. But that will happen.” “To me what’s exciting about all this is that we are talking of two countries that have very close ties, that have very intertwined histories, that have a very strong past together.” Even as the British PM high fives PM Modi, the court case for the return of the Koh-i-noor diamond is live again and it is possible Modi might refer to it. Modi’s first official event will be at 10 Downing Street where he will meet Prime Minister David Cameron. After a joint press meet, the prime minister will head to see Mahatma Gandhi’s statue at Parliament Square at Westminster. He will then address a joint session of the Parliament. The same evening Modi will meet top CEOs of the manufacturing sector and will then settle for dinner at Chequers — the Prime Minister’s country residence. The surprising addition though in list of things to do is on 13 November. PM Modi is likely to have a private lunch meeting with Her Majesty, The Queen at Buckingham Palace. A visit to the Warwick University near the Jaguar manufacturing plant in the Midlands is on the cards, before he heads to Wembley Stadium to speak to a massive audience of over 70,000. On 14 November, when Modi concludes his his, the PM would inaugurate Dr Ambedkar Memorial in London and a statue of Basaweshwara, poet and social reformer. The statue has cost a quarter million pounds to construct and is only the fourth of an Indian in London, the other three being Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore.