Is it Modi or is it that Obamas just don't like to party?

Several supporters of Narendra Modi have already started telling him he should boycott Barack Obama because he didn't treat him to a state dinner, and cancel the invite like Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff did last year, even though he hasn't got one.

Does it matter? The Obamas have been notoriously thrifty when it comes to hosting these dinners, which Bill Clinton and Ronal Reagan so loved. It may have something to do with the price tag - they spent $1.5 million on five state dinners between 2009 and 2011. It may also have something to do with Obama's inability to schmooze - as Politico magazine noted, the president prefers a game of golf to a game of what Winston Churchil famously called a "jaw-jaw".

It could also be that Obama's first state dinner in 2009, for our very own Manmohan Singh, ended controversially with the Salahis crashing the party - something the White House, battling questions about two intruders in two days, surely does not want to deal with.

The Manmohan Singh dinner was notable for its elegance, Michelle Obama's shoulders in our very own Naaem Khan's golden dress, and the sight of Manmohan Singh smiling.

Michelle Obama, with her focus on low fat food - she made herself a national symbol of healthier eating in 2010 with a legislative push for more fruit, vegetable and whole grains in school meals which has left Fox anchors fuming and school lunch providers frustrated - would be delighted at Modi's much-advertised abstemiousness, especially during Navratri (only lemon water and a cup of tea we are told).

The dinner would also have kept the considerable media forces being deployed in the US busy for several days. As former White House chef Wlater Sheib once noted, "A state dinner is so much more like a Broadway play than a dinner." And Modi, as we all know, is nothing but a performer.

For the record though, this was the menu for the Obama dinner for Manmohan Singh: red lentil soup with fresh cheese and a choice of entrees - roasted potato dumplings with tomato chutney, chick peas and okra for vegetarians, or green curry prawns. All wasted on Modi and Michelle.

India and state dinners

1961: The pictures show Nehru and Indira Gandhi looking elegant, sandwiched between the Kennedys in 1961, but the state dinner was a disaster, as was the entire trip. Nehru was off colour and Indira tried hard but Kennedy later complained that talking to Nehru was like trying "to grab something, only to have it turn out to be just fog"'.

JF Kennedy and Jawaharlal Nehru

1966: Indira Gandhi was more successful when it came to Lyndon Johnson in 1966. She got along with him, and pictures of her in a blue silk sari with a fur draped around her shoulders and her white streak accentuated just so, tell that story. It was her first step to the USA as prime minister and she took great care with her ensemble. Five years later, in 1971, she looked as elegant, in a red silk sari, and her hosts Richard and Pat Nixon looked pleasant enough, but the two leaders did not get along at all.

Indira Gandhi and Lyndon Johnson

Richard Nixon and Indira Gandhi in India

1985: Rajiv Gandhi got along with the Reagans when he visited in 1985 in possibly one of his most successful foreign visits, in what was the "Year of India". Their state dinner was one of many events in Rajiv and Sonia's social whirl, where Rajiv wore a bandgalla, in what American media described as the Indian version of black tie, and Sonia wore a sea green and gold sari.

Ronand Reagan and Rajiv Gandhi

2000: Though Atal Bihari Vajpayee was hosted by the Clinton in 2000 at the height of tensions between the two nations on Pokharan, the dinner was a success, especially gastronomically (both Clintons and Vajpayee being foodies). The menu? Darjeeling tea, smoked poussin, chilled green pea and cilantro soup, marble potatoes, wild copper river salmon, red kuri squash and rice, bean ragout, Swiss chard custard, garlic-chanterelle emulsion, young greens and herb salad, heirloom tomatoes, dry aged cheese blossom and 25-year-old sherry dressing. Followed by mango and banner lotus, litchis and raspberry sauce, "a majestic tiger's delight," honey almond squares and chocolate coconut bars.

AB Vajpayee and Bill Clinton