Fifteen years after it ceased to be legal tender, “chavanni” — the 25-paise coin — remains in political discourse as the measure of the worth of a political leader’s opponent.In the latest instance of the term being used, Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav, without naming any party or leader, said last week, “Hum logon ne chavanni ko rupaiya bana diya, phir bhi chhod ke chale gaye (We turned 25 paise into a rupee, and yet they left us).”In political circles, Yadav’s comment was read as a veiled reference to Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Jayant Chaudhary and his party’s move to quit the SP-led Opposition alliance in Uttar Pradesh to join the BJP-led NDA ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.The choice of the word chavanni, which the Reserve Bank of India demonetised in 2011 amid concerns over soaring metal prices under the Congress-led UPA’s rule, is being viewed in the RLD as a direct jab at Chaudhary, given that it revived a phrase the RLD chief himself used during the 2022 UP Assembly poll campaign.On January 27, 2022, Chaudhary, while responding to the BJP’s attempts to wean him away from the SP alliance ahead of Assembly elections, said, “Main koi chavanni hoon jo aise karke palat jaunga? (Am I a 25 paise coin that I will flip like this?)”Two years later, Chaudhary did snap his ties with the SP and joined the BJP alliance, and subsequently became a minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Cabinet.When PM used the termThe term chavanni has been used at least twice before.Story continues below this adHitting back at the Congress and other Opposition parties for opposing the BJP-led government’s demonetisation move in November 2016, PM Modi, while speaking at a BJP rally in eastern UP, had said the Congress was not in a position to criticise the decision, having demonetised the 25-paise coin when it was in power in 2011 without any consultations.“Yeh theek hai aap chavanni se aage chal nahin paate. Aapne apni barabari ka kaam kiya, humne hamari barabari ka kaam kiya (What the Congress did was in line with its stature; we did what befits our stature),” the PM said.In another instance, BJP MP Dinesh Sharma, during the Lok Sabha session in July 2024, remarked that Congress MP Charanjit Singh Channi did not have “chavanni ki haisiyat (the worth of a 25-paise coin)”. Sharma made the remark after Channi triggered a controversy by saying in the Lok Sabha that the detention of Amritpal Singh, an elected MP from Punjab, under the National Security Act (NSA) was part of an “undeclared Emergency”.Channi’s remark drew a sharp response from the BJP, which said he was referring to Waris Punjab De chief Amritpal Singh, who was detained under the NSA and had won the election to the Khadoor Sahib Lok Sabha seat from jail.Story continues below this adReacting to Channi’s remark, Sharma said, “Jinki chavanni ki haisiyat nahi hai, wo Channi me aaj atankwadi samarthak aatma jaag gai hai… Isme Congress ka ashirwad unko hai (Channi, who does not have the worth of even a 25-paise coin, has awakened in himself a soul with sympathy for a terrorist… He has the blessings of Congress in this).”Hours later, the Congress had distanced itself from Channi’s comment, with Congress MP Jairam Ramesh saying: “The views expressed by Charanjit Singh Channi on Amritpal Singh are his own and do not reflect in any way the position of the Congress.”Lalmani is an Assistant Editor with The Indian Express, and is based in New Delhi. He covers politics of the Hindi Heartland, tracking BJP, Samajwadi Party, BSP, RLD and other parties based in UP, Bihar and Uttarakhand. Covered the Lok Sabha elections of 2014, 2019 and 2024; Assembly polls of 2012, 2017 and 2022 in UP along with government affairs in UP and Uttarakhand. ... Read More Tags:Akhilesh YadavUttar Pradesh