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Ajit Jogi lives with controversies: The Tribune
New Delhi, Oct 19: SOME leaders thrive amidst controversy; some unwittingly create trouble for themselves. Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi is the one who lives with controversies and, if there are no problems, he creates one.
New Delhi, Oct 19: SOME leaders thrive amidst controversy; some unwittingly create trouble for themselves. Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi is the one who lives with controversies and, if there are no problems, he creates one. Jogi became the first Chief Minister of the newly carved Chhattisgarh state on November 1, 2000 in the midst of dispute over his tribal status. Since then, one controversy after another haunts him. Predominantly a tribal state, Chhattisgarh goes to poll on December 1 as Jogi’s pain in the neck seems to be unending. An IAS officer before he quit the coveted job to join politics, Jogi is no fool. He has a sharp mind. He knows how to make political maneuvers, switch loyalties and does not lack intellect. Currently, he enjoys confidence and full backing of Congress President Sonia Gandhi. There was time when he managed to come close to former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao and struck a good rapport with another Congress President, the late Sitaram Kesri. Almost overnight he was seen standing behind Sonia Gandhi as she ousted octogenarian Kesri.
The latest controversy surrounding Jogi is the CBI charge-sheet accusing him of deliberately using forged documents to claim that the Intelligence Bureau had launched a special operation targeting him just before the elections. He had barged-in at the routine press briefing at the AICC headquarters in March and distributed the copy of the alleged note issued by the IB relating to acquisition of movable and immovable property by him. Jogi accused the Centre of misusing the IB for framing political opponents and sent a copy to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. The Prime Minister immediately ordered a CBI inquiry into the allegation and now Jogi is in dock.
With elections barely 90 days away, Jogi’s tribal identity continues to haunt him. The National Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Commission had claimed that Jogi did not belong to Scheduled Tribe and his father was a Christian and his ancestors belonged to the “Satnami” sect, a Scheduled caste in Chhattisgarh and that he had fraudulently managed to get a ST certificate. Jogi challenged the jurisdiction of the Commission and obtained a stay.
The matter is now before the Chhattisgarh High Court. “Reburial” of the body of his daughter at his ancestral village in Gorella in Chhattisgarh after exhuming it from a graveyard in Indore was also talked about in hushed tones for many days. In a bid to outbid the BJP, he was quoted as saying “Lord Krishna is the best God, even better than Ram lala”.
Jogi became a Rajya Sabha member when he was only 40. Since then, he has been going up the ladder. He completed two terms in the Upper House and elected to the Lok Sabha in 1998 from Raigarh (now in Chhattisgarh) reserved constituency of erstwhile Madhya Pradesh.
In the last mid-term poll, he changed his constituency to Shahdol and had to face defeat. As spokesman of the Congress, he became the most visible face of his party. Initially, he was a bit shaky but with sound educational background and good command both over Hindi and English, he picked up fast and handled often intricate briefings with finesse and answered even the most provocative questions with a smile..
Highly ambitious and intelligent as Jogi is, he has learnt to read the political barometer quite early in his political career and always jumped to the bandwagon of the winning side. He owned his political career and nomination to Rajya Sabha to former Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh.
Jogi was rewarded at the cost of two senior leaders of Chhattisgarh — V.C. Shukla, who has since joined the NCP, and AICC treasurer, Motilal Vora and made Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh even though he did not command majority in the Congress Legislature Party. It is now a matter of fact if Digvijay Singh had not thrown his weight in favour of Jogi, he would never have been elected leader of the CLP. He, apparently, did so at the behest of his party President Sonia Gandhi. Seven supporters of V.C. Shukla boycotted the Legislature party meeting and, later, irate Shukla loyalists attempted to rough up the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister.
Jogi had a brilliant academic career. He did Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from one of the prestigious regional colleges — Bhopal’s Maulana Azad College of Technology, besides obtaining Law degree. He qualified for the Indian Administrative Service and worked as District Collector in Sidhi, Shahdol, Raipur and Indore districts of Madhya Pradesh gaining wide administrative experience. He quit IAS to enter politics in 1986 amidst several charges hurled at him. He entered the Rajya Sabha the same year.
The latest controversy surrounding Jogi is the CBI charge-sheet accusing him of deliberately using forged documents to claim that the Intelligence Bureau had launched a special operation targeting him just before the elections. He had barged-in at the routine press briefing at the AICC headquarters in March and distributed the copy of the alleged note issued by the IB relating to acquisition of movable and immovable property by him. Jogi accused the Centre of misusing the IB for framing political opponents and sent a copy to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. The Prime Minister immediately ordered a CBI inquiry into the allegation and now Jogi is in dock.
With elections barely 90 days away, Jogi’s tribal identity continues to haunt him. The National Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Commission had claimed that Jogi did not belong to Scheduled Tribe and his father was a Christian and his ancestors belonged to the “Satnami” sect, a Scheduled caste in Chhattisgarh and that he had fraudulently managed to get a ST certificate. Jogi challenged the jurisdiction of the Commission and obtained a stay.
The matter is now before the Chhattisgarh High Court. “Reburial” of the body of his daughter at his ancestral village in Gorella in Chhattisgarh after exhuming it from a graveyard in Indore was also talked about in hushed tones for many days. In a bid to outbid the BJP, he was quoted as saying “Lord Krishna is the best God, even better than Ram lala”.
Jogi became a Rajya Sabha member when he was only 40. Since then, he has been going up the ladder. He completed two terms in the Upper House and elected to the Lok Sabha in 1998 from Raigarh (now in Chhattisgarh) reserved constituency of erstwhile Madhya Pradesh.
In the last mid-term poll, he changed his constituency to Shahdol and had to face defeat. As spokesman of the Congress, he became the most visible face of his party. Initially, he was a bit shaky but with sound educational background and good command both over Hindi and English, he picked up fast and handled often intricate briefings with finesse and answered even the most provocative questions with a smile..
Highly ambitious and intelligent as Jogi is, he has learnt to read the political barometer quite early in his political career and always jumped to the bandwagon of the winning side. He owned his political career and nomination to Rajya Sabha to former Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh.
Jogi was rewarded at the cost of two senior leaders of Chhattisgarh — V.C. Shukla, who has since joined the NCP, and AICC treasurer, Motilal Vora and made Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh even though he did not command majority in the Congress Legislature Party. It is now a matter of fact if Digvijay Singh had not thrown his weight in favour of Jogi, he would never have been elected leader of the CLP. He, apparently, did so at the behest of his party President Sonia Gandhi. Seven supporters of V.C. Shukla boycotted the Legislature party meeting and, later, irate Shukla loyalists attempted to rough up the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister.
Jogi had a brilliant academic career. He did Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from one of the prestigious regional colleges — Bhopal’s Maulana Azad College of Technology, besides obtaining Law degree. He qualified for the Indian Administrative Service and worked as District Collector in Sidhi, Shahdol, Raipur and Indore districts of Madhya Pradesh gaining wide administrative experience. He quit IAS to enter politics in 1986 amidst several charges hurled at him. He entered the Rajya Sabha the same year.