From Midnight Oaths to Modern Milestones: Chhattisgarh Turns 25

This story goes back twenty-five years. On November 1, Chhattisgarh marked the silver jubilee of its formation. It was exactly midnight at Raipur’s Police Parade Ground when Justice R.S. Garg of the Jabalpur High Court took oath as the first Chief Justice of the new state. He then administered the oath to Dinesh Nandan Sahay — former Bihar DGP and vice-president of Nitish Kumar’s Samata Party — as Chhattisgarh’s first Governor. Moments later, the new Governor sworn Congress leader Ajit Jogi as the state’s first Chief Minister.

Jogi, who was staying at the Piccadilly Hotel in Bhilai Road, rushed out early that morning wearing the same kurta he had put on to meet Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Digvijaya Singh, and Prabha Rao — and arrived at the oath ceremony still in it.

His wife, Renu Jogi, was stopped for twenty minutes at the gate because she didn’t have an entry pass. It was only when Madhya Pradesh’s Women and Child Welfare Minister Geeta Devi Singh arrived that she was able to escort her inside.

Meanwhile, back in undivided Madhya Pradesh, Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh reached senior leader Vidya Charan Shukla’s farmhouse on the Mahasamund Road — where angry workers shoved and tore his kurta. Their grievance: Singh, despite being the observer, hadn’t proposed Shukla’s name for chief minister.

Across town, BJP’s national general secretary and Chhattisgarh in-charge Narendra Modi chaired a meeting of party legislators at the Raipur office. Tribal leader Nandkumar Sai from Raigarh was named Leader of Opposition. Raipur MLA Brijmohan Agrawal — who had been a minister in Madhya Pradesh — was also in the race, and his supporters, upset with the outcome, stormed his room under the district president’s lead. Modi reportedly had to duck under a cot as the scuffle broke out — and even his kurta was torn. The police rescued him soon after. Later, Brijmohan, district president Chhaganlal Mundra, and others were suspended — though, on the advice of national disciplinary chief Kushabhau Thakre, they were reinstated before the 2003 elections.

The first session of the Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly was held not in a building, but under a large tent pitched inside the campus of Rajkumar College. In his maiden address, Chief Minister Ajit Jogi declared, “I am a seller of dreams. On Chhattisgarh’s rich soil, no one will remain poor. My role model is Samru, the porter at Gurilla railway station — when he rises, Chhattisgarh will rise.” Rajendra Prasad Shukla was chosen as the first Speaker.

In the beginning, the new state ran on improvisation. The Secretariat functioned out of a hospital, the superintendent’s cabin became the Chief Minister’s office, the Circuit House turned into Raj Bhavan, and the district magistrate’s bungalow was renamed as the CM’s residence. Ministers and officers moved around in hired taxis.

In the twenty-five years since, Chhattisgarh has come a long way. From 16 districts, it now has 33. The first All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) outside Delhi came up in Raipur. Where officers once dreaded a Chhattisgarh posting, they now seek it out. The state saw India’s first private university, introduced a three-year rural medical course, and pioneered the ‘Mitanin’ model for anganwadi health workers.

Chhattisgarh has grown in these twenty-five years — and so, in equal measure, has its corruption.