Even as curious bystanders across the country clustered around portable television screens on Saturday evening to drink free tea and watch Narendra Modi orate, Mumbai was not able to participate.



With the model code of conduct now in place, the police ordered the second edition of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s ‘Chai pe charcha’ to be shut after it emerged that the party had not received permission from either the local police or the election commission to conduct it. No candidate can sponsor any political activity until the commission confirms his or her nomination.



‘Chai pe charcha’, or ‘conversations over tea’, is an international event organised by the BJP. Volunteers set up screens in public locations around the world – Japan, Germany and USA were said to have been included – to watch a live telecast of Modi drinking tea and answering questions from his audience. This edition of ‘Chai pe charcha’ was planned to mark International Women’s Day.



“It will come back on when they take permission,” said a policeman at Zaveri Bazar in Mumbai when asked why the screening stopped. “Until then, we will have to confiscate this equipment.”



The police docked two television screens, cables and possibly a direct-to-home satellite there, but did not confiscate anything around the corner at Swadeshi Market because BJP workers managed to pack up in time. They did not, however, penalise the local tea vendor, who said he managed to distribute about 150 small plastic cups of tea before the crowd dispersed.



Police ordered volunteers wearing "India 272" t-shirts at Zaveri Bazar to halt the screening ten minutes after it began at 5:30 pm. These volunteers restarted the screening half an hour later because Modi had appeared on stage in Delhi. The police were not amused. They threatened to report the BJP to the election commission.



If Modi spoke about women’s development before the police intervened, the crowd at Zaveri Bazar did not hear it because of scratchy audio. Of the 50-60 onlookers, this reporter was the only woman.



Only two or three onlookers were vocal about their support for Modi, but they were the first to disappear when the police arrived. “Modi is the only clean person in all politics,” one man said to general approval. “He is our only hope. Everyone else is corrupt.”



“Yes, they all say the same thing before they get into power,” muttered another person nearby.



The crowd listened intently to the declamations only until the next tray of tea passed around.



Zaveri Bazar in south Mumbai is dominated by Gujarati merchants. While the area is synonymous with diamond jewellers, it sees thousands of pedestrians at any given time in the day. The incumbent member of parliament is Milind Deora of the Congress. The National Democratic Alliance is fielding a Shiv Sena candidate, Arvind Sawant, from here. Sena volunteers were noticeably absent.



“This was not a political event,” said Mrigesh Shah, a BJP volunteer who has been working in the area for years. He was one of several workers at the Swadeshi Market event. He pointed at some men taking down a banner of Narendra Modi with scraps of paper pasted in the top-right corner. “We covered all the party symbols. This was just supposed to be an intellectual conversation about important issues. It was not a campaign.”



Ten years ago, Modi campaigned near Swadeshi Market after the code of conduct came into place. The election commission then filed a case against local BJP workers for tying flags to lampposts. Lampposts are government property and cannot be used for campaigning.



“That case is still pending in the court,” said Ramesh Shah, another BJP worker. “The party lawyer comes and goes. We forget to attend sometimes and the court issues a summons. Now let us see what happens here.”



