The Bharatiya Janata Party has been trying its level best to elevate Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as the future Prime Minister of India and has been actively campaigning on his behalf. The new campaign Chai Pe Charcha (discussion over tea) is currently abuzz of the state of Gujarat. The tea stalls owned by party workers and others are now re-naming their stalls with Narendra Modi as “NaMo Tea Stall.”
The BJP party workers are independently re-branding their own tea stall. On the other hand, interestingly the first among this renamed tea stall belongs to a muslim who lives in Odhav area. The 40 year old Zubair Shaikh was approached by the BJP activists and have asked whether he has any objection, if his tea stall is renamed after Narendra Modi. What can Zubair do if doesn't like? Nothing right! So without any other choice, Zubair said No and BJP workers brought a new hoarding to the tea stall and renamed it as “NaMo Tea Stall.”This tea stall is three kilometers away from Naroda Patiya area, where 97 Muslims were killed in 10 hours during the 2002 riots. When asked Zubair about this words on the hoarding, he said,”we can't keep carrying the past with us. What has happened is happened and its time to move on. I did not rise any objection regarding the re-naming of the tea stall and I did not pay from my pocket to the hoarding. Infact the hoarding also acts like a publicity for my tea stall.” With a small smile on this face, he ended the conversation.
However the public are quite upset and angry over this and called it merely a publicity stunt. The residents of Naroda Patiya criticized this publicity and disapproved with the re-naming of tea stalls. One of the resident said, why only one muslim tea stall was asked rename in Odhav area when there are hundreds of tea stalls. The past may be past but the riots mark will remain in Gujarat state history as long as the city lives. Adding to this, seeking peoples votes one should earn respect. There are even allegations that BJP workers are forcing few of them to change the name of tea stall and while quite a few are outrightly rejecting the proposal.
Till now over 100 tea stalls have been renamed after Narendra Modi and soon they are planning to launch this campaign in Ahmedabad also. Bharatiya Yuva Janata Morcha leader Prakash Gurjar is taking care of this campaign and has been actively moving his men. But when asked about the allegations that came, he dismissed them. “The first tea stall we renamed belongs to muslim community person. We asked him whether he has any objection or not, he voluntarily agreed. We don't threaten anyone and we have few people who have obstructed our campaign. So we have moved to another,” added Gurjar.
(AW: Vamshi)
