CHENNAI, Sept 2: The prime minister Narendra Modi is all set to “take on” the former Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalitha, not politically but through “idlis,” one of the most popular snacks for the people of this southern state.
A BJP functionary Mahesh, who is the vice-president of the party’s propaganda cell in TN, has come up with the idea of ‘Modi Idli’ in Salem in direct competition with ‘Amma Idli’, named after Jayalalitha, served at a token price of Re 1.
Mahesh has also rolled out an ad blitzkrieg with posters of ‘Modi Idli’ coming up in several areas in Salem, plastered behind local autos and other modes of transport. The idlis will be priced at Rs 10 for four pieces, the posters announced. The posters also carry picture of a beaming Modi with Mahesh.
Mahesh said the idea of launching the “Modi idli” came from a stream of people lately coming to the party office and elsewhere looking for jobs or food. “Every day close to 100 people in need of job, food etc. comes to our office. So we thought it better to arrange for subsidized food with good quality. We decided to give idli, the staple food of Tamil Nadu at highly subsidized price of Rs 10 for breakfast and dinner and name it after the prime minister. We purchased a state-of the-art equipment, and for cooking use only mineral water, with best quality of rice and daal,” Mahesh said.
He is confident that the ‘Modi Idlis’ would do better than ‘Amma idlis,’ which had been running for years, Mahesh said: “Amma Idli is using PDS rice and daal, they don’t have any operating cost. We are buying the highest quality rice and daal,” He claimed that the Amma Idli centres were preparing only about 100 or 200 Idlies per day which meant that only about 40 to 50 people could take advantage of the subsidized price of Re one. “In contrast, we will supply 40,000 idlis per day. The equipment which we have purchased cost 20 lakh rupees. With the help of the equipment, for every five minutes, we can dish out 900 idlis through three steamers. We are going to distribute this through 22 centres in Salem helping everyone’s budget,” he said.
Mahesh claimed of “fantastic response” to the ads judging from the queries being received and said the scheme was expected to be launched by next week.
(Manas Dasgupta)