When it comes to gaffes, there is perhaps no greater goldmine than Indian politics. Politicians are known to get carried away by their rhetoric and commit some severe general knowledge blunders. From pooh-pooing scientific findings to altering historical facts, politicians have given us enough reason to wonder whether they’ve been outsourcing their speech writing to kindergartners. Recent gems include Rahul Gandhi’s claim that the founder of Coca-Cola was shikanjiwala or a lemonade seller, which left many at the Congress camp red-faced. And even before the laughter abated at the BJP headquarters, PM Narendra Modi one-upped his political rival with a hilarious one of his own.

While speaking at the inauguration of World Biofuel Day, the PM recalled an anecdote about a chaiwaala or a tea-seller who harnessed the smelly gases emanating from a sewer to light up his stove. And as expected, the PM detractors, including Rahul Gandhi, were quick to point the hilarity of his statement. The Twitterati hit the mother lode, spinning one meme after another. It’s safe to say that even the PM biggest supporters were at a loss for words and couldn’t help but cringe.

Here is the video of PM Modi telling the story of a tea vendor and farmer at World Biofuel Day:

He may not be entirely wrong. PM Modi was referring to harvesting methane from sewers as an economical and eco-friendly option for cooking gas. Maybe the resourceful tea-seller was working up a jugaad by setting up a rudimentary version of the bio-digester. But it was PM’s gross oversimplification of the process that left many in splits. He explained: “Ussne ek chote se bartan ko ulta karke, ched karke ek pipe daal di. Aur jo gutter se gas nikalta tha, woh pipeline se uske chai ke thele mein le liya. Aur woh chai banane ke liye ussi gas ka upyog karke chai banata tha.” (He kept a small vessel on top of the gutter, made a hole in it and put a pipe through it. He used the gas that passed through the pipe to make tea.)

How Does a Bio-Digester Work?

PM Modi’s explanation of the process made harvesting methane look like child’s play. It’s a somewhat complicated procedure and not as easy as passing a pipe through a sewer. A bio-digester is a large tank where biogas is produced by breaking down organic matter like leaves, grass, weeds, leftovers, and vegetables with the help of bacteria. Here's a diagram explaining how bio-digester works.

Bio-digester (Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

The bio-digester can also work by decomposing human and cattle excretory waste in a digester tank by using certain high-grade bacteria to convert it into water and gas. In the chambers of the digester, the organic matter is combined with anaerobic bacteria, which decomposes the matter inside. Methane is then produced through anaerobic digestion, which is separated from hydrogen sulphide and then supplied to households as a clean, sustainable option for cooking gas.

The waste exits the digester through the outlet, which can then be used as an organic fertiliser. The liquid effluent, which is purified, can be used to water plants and to flush toilets. Every day, households can feed the digester with organic products such as kitchen waste, manure and human waste, giving them a continuous source of clean, sustainable energy. Here's a video explaining how biofuel is generated.

What Was Lost In Translation

Gaffe after gaffe, politicos have been losing what they meant to say in translation. In a bid to dumb it down for the audience and to play to the gallery, they’ve been accused of gross crimes against science. Those who didn’t jump on the bandwagon to troll Rahul Gandhi after Shikanjigate knew he was only trying to find a desi co-ordinate for the word soda and restaurant when he said shikanji and dhabha. Maybe PM Modi was trying to do the same when he (hilariously) simplified the complicated biogas procedure when he recounted the story of the tea-seller.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 13, 2018 08:16 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).