DHAKA: Indian prime minister Narendra Modi will observe a strict religious fast during his maiden trip to the United States, aides said on Monday, in a test both of the 64-year-old leader’s stamina and of protocol in the Obama White House.

Throughout a gruelling schedule that features the United Nations General Assembly, a rally of Indian Americans at New York’s Madison Square Garden and talks with president Barack Obama in Washington, the devout Hindu will abstain from food.

In keeping with the habits of a lifetime, Modi will restrict himself to a ‘liquid diet’ throughout the Navratri festival, when India’s majority Hindus worship mother goddess Durga in all her manifestations.

‘He will only consume lemonade with some honey and a cup of tea every day,’ a senior official in Modi’s office in New Delhi told media, reports The Straits Times.

‘He has been fasting for the last four decades and does not want to change this pattern even while he is travelling,’ added the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

BDST: 1917 HRS, SEP 22, 2014