Mumbai: Ever heard of silly things like ‘tea scam’ in the world of scams. Yes, the governments and political atmosphere here in India have gone to such low level that speaks out the status of them in our democracy. According to the media reports, the Maharashtra Congress unit on Wednesday demanded scrutiny for the inflated bills of tea and snacks for the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO).

The CMO rubbished the allegations saying the opposition’s flawed inference did not include all expenditure.

Mumbai Regional Congress has given citation of papers obtained through the Right To Information or RTI Act. The President of the Committee Sanjay Nirupam said that there was a whopping 577 per cent rise in the bills of tea and snacks which were served in the chief minister’s office.

“What tea is the chief minister drinking?” he asked.

“Information obtained under the RTI has revealed that the expenditure on tea and snacks in the chief minister’s office (CMO) rose from around Rs. 58 lakh in 2015-16 to Rs. 3.34 crore in 2017-18, a dramatic increase of 577 per cent,” the Congress leader said.

“The RTI document shows a steady increase in the amount of money spent on tea consumption in the chief minister’s office,” he said.

The fresh allegation about ‘tea and snacks’ by the Mumbai Regional Congress Committee president follows the recent charges leveled against the government of large-scale irregularities in a given contract to kill rodents inside the Mantralaya, the state secretariat in south Mumbai.

Mr Niruupam alleged that at least 18,591 cups of tea were served daily in the office of Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis.

“What kind of tea is Devendra Fadnavis drinking? We have heard of green tea, yellow tea and so on. But Fadnavis seems to be drinking some kind of ‘golden’ tea. I cannot imagine this huge expenditure on tea when farmers are dying in Maharashtra on a daily basis,” he said.

“On one hand, Prime Minister Narendra Modi takes great pride in saying that he was a ‘chaiwala’ (tea seller).

“Mr Fadnavis seems to have taken this a bit too far since the ‘chai’ he is drinking cannot be sold at a regular tea stall,” he said.

The former MP further said that both Modi and Fadnavis were taking the country for a ride in the name of ‘chai’.

Replying to the Congress leader’s fresh allegations, the CMO in a statement said, “The conclusions drawn by Mr Nirupam are wrong. The expenditure he referred to as being on tea and snacks are in reality the expenditure on the overall hospitality.”

The present day politicians are involved in mud-slinging on each other by picking out issues that can be used to counter their rivals. But by doing this, they are downgrading the level of politics in the country.

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