Experience in jail during emergency changed me: MP chief minister

Indore: MP chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan here on Monday said that he has come to his home while addressing office bearers, workers and former members of the Akhil Bhartiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP).

The chief minister was speaking in a meeting of the ABVP in which Sahsarkaryavah Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) Suresh Soni and ABVP’s national organisational secretary Sunil Ambekar among others were present on the occasion.

Chouhan who joined the RSS in 1972 during his school days and later become president of students’ union of Model Higher Secondary School in Bhopal shared his memories of his life in the ABVP.

The chief minister revealed how he learnt many important aspects of working in public life during his association with the ABVP.

Sharing his past experience and how his journey in politics started with the first encounter with police in TT Nagar at the time of emergency, Chouhan said that he was in trouble after publicity materials and pamphlets against the draconian law was found with him during police search.

Chouhan spoke on how police kept him in a lock-up for the entire night and later attempted to get information about the source of the material by offering him poha and jalebi.

“Later police put me in a jail and the experience there changed my life completely and I have decided to do something for my country and that was the beginning of my career as swayamsewak,” Chouhan said.

All credit for becoming a swayamsewak goes to Suryakant Kelkar, he said.

“Inside the jail I read a lot about Swami Vivekanand and Lokmanya Tilak and that made me a permanent worker of ABVP,” Chouhan said.

“After moving out of jail, I joined ABVP and served on different posts while studying at Saifia College in Bhopal. Throughout my life, I’ve work diligently and never lost hope even after facing defeat,” he said.

“Initially, we faced a series of defeats in student elections, but we recovered and continued with new energy. We won students elections in both Bhopal and Indore later,” he added.

Chouhan said, “ABVP taught me a lot, especially team work, and even after I became the chief minister, I still follow the same principle of planning in advance and planning in detail.”

The CM said that he used to spend from the organisational fund, “After a lot of thinking and in a miserly manner.”

He said, “Despite being chief minister, even today I don’t keep any money in the pocket.”

Soni also addressed the gathering.