Red carpet welcome in contrast: Prime Minister Narendra Modi arriving in the US (left) and Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan on his arrival in America (right).

Notwithstanding Pakistan eternal attempt to be a matching rival of India, the two countries occupy opposite ends in the world of international diplomacy and geo-strategy. This is evident during the ongoing US visit of the prime ministers of the two countries.

While Prime Minister Narendra Modi is largely winning accolades for his showpiece event at Houston with US President Donald Trump and a host of parliamentarians sitting in the audience, his Pakistani counterpart Imran Khan is being mocked over his low-key US visit.

Social media is abuzz highlighting the contrast in the glamour quotient in the programmes of the two leaders. Twitterati, not only from India but also from Pakistan, have mocked Imran Khan over an "indifferent" welcome accorded to him in the US.

Imran Khan is being mocked for flying a commercial airline from Pakistan to Saudi Arabia on an official visit where he met the top leadership of the country. He was scheduled to take another commercial flight to the US to attend the UN General Assembly, underway in New York.

However, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman did not let Imran Khan embark on the commercial flight saying he was Saudi Arabia's special guest and he would travel in a private jet. This prompted the classes and the masses of social media roast Imran Khan like a fly. Imran Khan was shown as a beggar in many memes on social media while presenting Narendra Modi as universal boss.

However, it is far from the truth that Imran Khan or the Pakistani government cannot afford a special aircraft from him. This was the practice in Pakistan till the previous government. Imran Khan, after coming to power last year, has been calling for austerity in government.

Imran Khan is presiding over a government that is battling to save the country from economic breakdown. To gain people's trust, Imran Khan earlier this year directed his cabinet to fully implement austerity measures and adopt a simple lifestyle so that the ministers are not seen as living an opulent life while the people are suffering.

Imran Khan began with cutting expenses for his own official residence. The previous government had allocated Rs 1.10 billion for the Prime Minister's House. His government brought it down to Rs 750 million out of it - a saving of 32 per cent, the government spokesperson had said in June this year.

During his July US visit, Imran Khan had taken a commercial airline instead of a chartered plane, as was the norm with previous state visits by top Pakistani leaders. He had even stayed at the official residence of Pakistan's ambassador to the US instead of occupying a luxury hotel.

Later, the Pakistani government issued a statement saying that Imran Khan's US visit cost just one-eighth of the expense incurred on the 2013 US visit by Nawaz Sharif, the former prime minister of the country.

This came in the backdrop of a bailout by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that approved a $6 billion loan waiver over a period of three years for Pakistan. This saved Pakistan from becoming a defaulter.

In August, the Imran Khan government banned the purchase of vehicles in the ministries and creation of new jobs, the limited entitlement of magazines to just one, ordered printing official communiqué on both sides of the paper and asked the accounting officers to ensure rationalised consumption of electricity, LPG, telephone and water on government premises in order to keep the official expenditure to the minimum.

These measures were announced to express solidarity with the common people of Pakistan who are facing high unemployment, low income and rising prices. Imran Khan had told his cabinet earlier this year that he would lead by example to make his austerity drive effective.

His US visit is an extension of the domestic austerity drive of the Imran Khan government. In fact, despite Imran Khan's inability to deal with pressing issues of Pakistan and continuing to use terrorism as a diversionary tool, his austerity drive might be emulated by politicians in India, which too is facing some serious economic issues. The economic growth rate is slowing down, unemployment is at a record high, prices in retail markets are soaring and massive job loss is staring in many sectors of the economy.