The inside story of PM Modi’s tea-garden visit in Assam
PM Modi’s interaction with tea garden workers at Dibrugarh’s Monohari Tea Estate on April 1 was unplanned. Staying overnight in the tea garden’s resort, he spotted workers heading to the garden and sought a conversation, triggering photos that drew Opposition criticism as a pre-election photo-op.
- Apr 02, 2026,
- Updated Apr 02, 2026, 8:57 PM IST
Prime Minister Narendra Modi made an unscheduled visit to the Monohari Tea Estate gardens in Dibrugarh in Assam on the morning of April 1, interacting with tea garden workers and plucking tea leaves before heading to election rallies in Gogamukh and Behali in the state.
Images of the visit quickly flooded social media and news channels, drawing sharp criticism from the Opposition, which termed it a publicity photo-op aimed at wooing tea garden voters ahead of the assembly elections. Some also questioned why the Prime Minister was seen plucking tea leaves, a task traditionally performed by women in
Assam's tea gardens, while men are usually assigned other roles.
However, according to people familiar with the sequence of events, the visit was not part of the Prime Minister’s official schedule. Modi had arrived in Dibrugarh on the night of March 31 and stayed at Manohari The Tea Retreat, a resort within the tea estate. He was to leave for Dibrugarh airport early the next morning to take a helicopter to his rally venues in Dhemaji and Sonitpur districts.
After waking up, the Prime Minister spotted workers walking past the resort on their way to the garden and expressed a wish to speak with them. His team then approached the estate’s owner, Rajen Lohiya, and asked if the PM could speak to some workers so that he could understand their concerns and daily routine. Instead of meeting them at the resort, the PM wanted to meet them at their workplace. There was little time to spare, Modi was scheduled to fly out within the hour.
In under 40 minutes, Lohiya arranged for a group of women tea garden workers. The Prime Minister asked them what more the government could do to improve their lives. The workers shared their concerns but also expressed pride at the appointment of Droupadi Murmu as India’s President. Murmu, the country’s first tribal President, belongs to the Santhal community, a community to which many of Assam’s tea garden workers also belong.
What followed—the photographs of the Prime Minister among the tea bushes—became the morning’s most talked-about political images.