Talks over tea may be meant for lighter discussions but it was not so on Wednesday. BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi gave a rather bitter dose of politics through tea cup on ‘chai pe charcha’ which claimed to have connected near thousand locations across 300 cities.
Nevertheless Ranchi, originally kept as one of the cities talking directly to NaMo via videoconferencing, malfunctioned and had to be dropped, the unforeseen event generated lots of enthusiasms among common people. Most number of footfall seen at busy Firayalal Chowk where people from different walks of life attended Modi on evening tea. “I have not seen anything like that before. It is looking a smart move to engage people and more than answering, Modi is depicting his ideas and vision for the politics in the country. For me it is looking as another way to address rallies with some kind of innovation which makes it two-way,” said Shailendra Sharma, a teacher.
Attendance went over 200 at the crowded place which was one among six selected in Ranchi to hold the programme. All arrangements to connect live with the Gujarat Chief Minister went in vain as technical support coming from ‘Videocon’ failed to get satellite link. “It is technical problem and we are expecting to connect the locations of Ranchi in the next round of chai pe charcha ,” said a technical member of Citizen for Accountable Governance.
Also present on the occasion was former Assembly Speaker and Ranchi MlA CP Singh who expressed his happiness with a sip of hot tea. “It will connect people with the BJP and Modiji in a big way as the initiative is aimed to answer their problems directly,” said he. The BJP leader also started his interaction underlining the importance of the gathering over tea stall. “I have a deep experience related to tea and have several good and bad memories connected with. Now we are using the latest technology to experiment about establishing a communication with common people and know what they think. Thanks to technology and thanks to chai,” said Modi in his opening remark while sitting on a tea stall at Ahmedabad.
During his interaction, he touched upon issues of bad governance which, in his mind, is generating a disconnect and trust deficit between people and Government, responsibility of leaders to talk people in a democracy like India and also that how and why ancient historical practices, no matter how they have been noble and exemplary, needed to be toned as per modern day requirements. “We can take threads from our rich historical practices like Chanakya talked about taxation system or land revenue system of Todermal as far as establishing good governance is concerned,” answered Modi to a question asked from Varanasi. He also promised to bring back black money “stashed in tax havens” and encourage those who are honest while penalising the corrupts.
He also lauded his Gujarat model in harnessing solar energy through canal-top panelling and pulled up the Centre for not paying any heed to his proposal to replicate it throughout the country. Stressing on the importance of physical labour, Modi called to end the psychological barrier coming through degree-oriented higher education. For the regions like Bihar, Jharkhand and other eastern States, Modi called for a special drive so that the resource-rich areas can come and match “economically active” western States.
Irrespective of political gains to the BJP the activity brought good profit for Sadique, the vendor, who sold over 600 cups just during the two-hour long discussion. Nevertheless his neighbouring chaiwala Rajesh Verma is a disappointed man as all the customers went to Sadique due to the programme. “I brought items of Rs 400 on credit and the supplier came asking for money. But I hardly managed Rs 200 which would prove little considering family expenses,” says Verma, a metaphor of large section of society who feel disenchanted with politics.