Skip to main content

Narendra Modi "stole" Chai pe charcha concept from Anhad, claims senior activist Shabnam Hashmi

By A Representative
Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi's "Chai pe charcha", which began in Gujarat towns on February 12 evening, has made national headlines. It seeks to counter Congress propaganda, which had sought, at one point, to ridicule that Modi, during his youth, worked as a boy selling tea at a tea stall.
However, a prominent anti-Modi campaigner Shabnam Hashmi has created a stir in the social media by claiming that the BJP's prime ministerial aspirant "stole" the idea floated by the voluntary organisation she heads, Anhad, bout 14 months back. Ahnad had organised a "Chai pe charcha" in Ahmedabad with Tushar Gandhi.
"The video below is of Anhad's programme with Tushar Gandhi in December 2012 ,discussion at various chai ki ketlis in Ahmadabad. The difference of course is by the time we reached the third chai ki ketli RSS sent people to heckle us which of course won't happen with Modi", she said in a statement. 
Hashmi has forwarded the following Youtube video to prove herself:

Comments

TRENDING

Incarceration of Prof Saibaba 'revives' the question: What is crime, who is criminal?

By Kunal Pant* In 2016, a Supreme Court Judge asked the state of Maharashtra, “Do you want to extract a pound of flesh?” The statement was directed against the state for contesting the bail plea of Delhi University Professor GN Saibaba. Saibaba was arrested in 2014, a justification for which was to prevent him from committing what the police called “anti-national activities.”

India’s heatwave crisis: How concrete cities are fueling climate emergency

By Rajkumar Sinha*  According to recent studies, urban areas are witnessing a much sharper rise in temperatures than rural regions. The planet is currently heading toward an additional 1.9°C of warming — far beyond the target envisioned under the Paris Agreement . A team of climate scientists associated with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has noted that India’s average temperature increased by nearly 0.9°C during the decade between 2015 and 2024 compared to the early twentieth century (1901–1930). In western and northeastern India, the hottest day of the year has already become 1.5°C to 2°C warmer since the 1950s.

Retired civil servants slam CJI’s remarks on environmental litigants

By A Representative   An open letter issued on May 22, 2026, by the Constitutional Conduct Group (CCG), comprising 71 retired civil servants from the All India and Central Services, has strongly criticized recent remarks made by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) against environmental litigants.