In Sweltering Poll Season, Chaiwala PM Raises a Storm in a Tea Cup

As poll season draws near, PM Modi tries flashing the chaiwala card yet again, but will it work, asks Abheek Barman.

Rhetoric around tea in poll season seems to be nothing but false propaganda. (Photo: The Quint)

“When I was a tea-seller, it was Assam tea I sold, which refreshed people. I owe a debt to Assam for that.” Thus spoke Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a substantial audience in Tinsukia, Assam on March 27.

Ever since he began his campaign to become India’s next prime minister from late 2013, Modi modelled himself as a humble seller of tea at a railway station. Assam, where assembly elections will be held on April 4 and 11, is India’s largest tea growing state. By the end of the 2014 season, it grew 629 million kg – or 52% – of all tea produced in India.

‘Chai’ as a Poll Plank

Of the four major states that are going to polls this summer, Assam is the only one where the BJP fancies it has a chance to form a government. At first sight then, it made excellent sense to conflate Modi’s chaiwala identity with the industry that employs the maximum number of people in Assam.

But there’s a catch – or three – here. Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, the three other states that vote this summer, are also significant tea-growing states. Of these three, Kerala produces the least – 63.5 million kg – a little more than 5% of India’s total.

Tamil Nadu produces three times as much, around 175 million kg. West Bengal produces more than 312 million kg, or more than a quarter of India’s tea.

Unlike the low-value cut-crushed-curled (or CTC) leaf produced elsewhere, Bengal’s full-leaf Darjeeling tea is almost worth its weight in gold and is a global luxury brand. In a 2014 auction, a single kilogram of tea from Darjeeling’s Makaibari estate fetched an eye-popping $1,850, or Rs 1.2 lakh. In the 2015 auctions, the best Assam tea sold for Rs 225 per kg.

All this could put Modi in a spot of bother while campaigning in these states. At a pinch, he can play down the chaiwala bit in Kerala, or claim he used to sell masala (spiced) tea – spices being a major export for the southern state.

Harping too much on ‘Chai Pe Charcha’

• Ever since he began his campaign since late 2013, Modi has modelled himself as a humble seller of tea at a railway station.
  
• Rhetoric around tea comes at a time when three other tea growing states – Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, go to polls.
  
• Modi can claim anything he wants, because the chaiwala narrative is a bit of a stretch.
  
• In response to an RTI query in February 2015, the government conceded there was no official record of Modi selling tea at railway platforms or trains.
  

Separating Grain from Chaff

But can he turn his back on his effusiveness about Assam’s infusion and claim he sold Darjeeling tea along the tracks? Will he also thank Tamils for sending their Annamalai or Nilgiri leaves all the way to a railway platform in Vadnagar?

Could it be true, then, that at a tender age our current prime minister was hawking every single variety of tea to discerning – and extremely choosy – customers at a tiny railway platform in Gujarat?

Actually, Modi can claim anything he wants, because the chaiwala narrative is, well, a bit of a stretch.

Even now, the railway track through Vadnagar is metre-gauge (for small, light trains) as opposed to broad-gauge tracks on other routes. Today, just six local trains halt there briefly. Half a century ago, when Modi was presumably selling tea, only a solitary train used to stop at Vadnagar. It doesn’t take a Gujarati to figure out it made no sense to peddle tea there.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives to attend a BJP rally at Bokakhat in Golaghat district of Assam on March 26, 2016. (Photo: IANS)

Humble Exaggeration

In real life, Modi’s father Damodardas Mulchand, ran a state transport department canteen – no small beer in those days. Locals say the family used to employ as many as 49 people to run this business at the time.

In February 2015, the government headed by Modi conceded there was no official record of Modi selling tea at railway platforms or trains. This was in response to a Right to Information (RTI) query filed with the government. Hawking on platforms or trains require official passes and there’s no evidence Modi ever applied for, or got, one.

In the ultimate analysis, it might not matter one bit whether Modi got his tea from Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu or Kerala. In the boiling rhetoric of this summer’s election, those details are but a storm in a tea cup.

(The writer is a Delhi-based senior journalist)

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