Tea-seller's son can head a country only in India: Hagel

"In few places in the world other than in India and America could the child of a small-town tea salesman rise to become Prime Minister...or a child raised in Indonesia, born to a Kenyan father and a Kansan mother, rise to become President," Hagel said at the  Observer Research Foundation here.

He was making reference to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Barack Obama.

Modi used to sell tea in trains and help his father run a small tea stall in Gujarat at an early phase of his life.

Vadnagar station, where Narendra Modi’s father owned a tea stall, was where Narendra Modi also sold tea.

According to his biography, his early years were not very easy. It says: "The family belonged to the marginalized sections of society and had to struggle to make ends meet. The entire family lived in a small single storey house (approximately 40 feet by 12 feet). His father sold tea at the tea stall he set up in the local railway station. In his early years, Narendra Modi too lent a hand to his father at the tea stall."

It was his tea seller background that in this election Modi managed to hard-sell projecting himself as a man who rose from the grassroots.

Barack Obama, who is the 44th President of the US, was born to an American mother and a father of Kenyan origin.

Obama was elected  as the President of the country on Nov 4, 2008, and sworn in on Jan 20, 2009.