Tale of two new cities

I remember how upset my mother was when she heard about my posting in Chhattisgarh. ‘‘It’s not a good place. Don’t go there,’’ she tried to dissuade me. I realised she was confusing Chhattisgarh with Jharkhand. ‘‘Oh yes, I meant Jharkhand’’, she admitted later. Just a week ago, when a senior PR company official from Raipur was in Delhi for attending a marriage, he too faced frequent questioning. ‘‘Tell me, boss! Does Laloo’s writ still run in Jharkhand, or is it Marandi’s show now?’’

The state’s chief secretary Arun Kumar found himself in a tight spot sometime ago when he went to see a senior official at the Centre. The official, despite knowing he is chief secretary of Chhattisgarh, asked him ‘‘When did you arrive from Ranchi?’’

In yet another case, a senior executive from the Chhattisgarh Infrastructure Development Corporation (CIDC), on an official trip to Calcutta, decided to call on a managing director of a PSU in the state. It was a testing time for the low-profile executive as the MD started telling him, ‘‘Well, your chief minister Babu Lal Marandi was here last week and had an excellent interaction with my chief minister.’’ The shell-shocked Chhattisgarh official corrected him. ‘‘Sir, my chief minister is Ajit Jogi. The gentleman you named is chief minister of Jharkhand.’’

Jogi’s aides are exasperated. ‘‘Our chief minister has been on the national scene, handling the media at the AICC headquarters and also as member of Parliament. Yet, he does not get the attention that is his due.’’ In the Balco controversy too, the state remained in the news for all the wrong reasons. Look at the positives in Chhattisgarh — it is the richest state in terms of minerals, has a power surplus and is a peaceful land. A whole civilisation dwells in its forests, away from the urban centres. Which other state can boast of two distinctive civilisations — one of the 21st century, and the other centuries old, living together? Officials in Chhattisgarh boast of having positioned the state among the fastest growing Indian states, in a milieu that is free from organised violence.

To an extent, it is understandable why people outside these two new states are more aware of Jharkhand than of Chhattisgarh. Through the years, Jharkhand had an organised movement for statehood, like in Uttaranchal. Its activities kept Jharkhand in the limelight while Chhattisgarh had no such powerful organised movement. Also, the lack of tourism infrastructure — especially its poor roads — have kept Chhattisgarh completely out of the national focus. This remains true even today.

But whatever the reasons for the comparative advantages Jharkhand enjoys over Chhattisgarh, the people of Chhattisgarh cannot be blamed for feeling jealous every time Raipur is confused with Ranchi.