This incident had occurred 17 years ago, this month.
Chhattisgarh, a new state, was to be carved out of Madhya Pradesh. Congress high-command wanted Ajit Jogi, the bureaucrat-turn-politician, to be made CM.
Digvijaya Singh was no friend of Jogi but he had to accomplish the task. Congress satrap Vidyacharan Shukla was naturally unhappy at the turn of events.
Digvijaya along with Congress leaders entered the farmhouse in a car. Suddenly, he faced the unexpected. A local Congress leader along with scores of workers of VC Shukla camp, pounced upon Singh. Ghulam Nabi Azad and Prabha Rao were also with Digvijaya.
While Digvijaya Singh was abused, roughed up, hit and even his clothes torn, he resisted. It was to become a national story. After all, senior Congress leaders fell on ground, got slapped and hit brazenly. Prabha Rau escaped unhurt.
Media reports mention that. "...in the melee Digvijay was pushed around and slapped ...but he amazingly fought with the crowd...Jogi escaped humilation by deciding at the last moment not to travel to the farmhouse". [Outlook]
'...mob which hurled abuses and began heckling Digvijay until he fell....Prabha Rau was spared but Azad was not. As he wriggled through the crowd into Shukla's home, some of the men slapped and hit him', reported Telegraph.
They ripped his kurta, flung slippers and socked him at random. Shellshocked for the first few months, the chief minister started striking back', mentions the report, further.
As the mob continued to work on the chief minister, some of their colleagues stood guard at the gate,their eyes twinkling in glee.
'Jaiye dekhiye wahan mukhya mantri ki pitai ho rahi hai, Uski himmat kaise hui yahan aane ki?', (Go, see the CM is getting beaten up. How dare he come here?) they shrieked, the report further mentions.
Frontline report mentioned how the incident had rattled Digvijaya Singh. Meanwhile, VC Shukla, nonchalantly played host to others including politicians and journalists. And that's power. It's 'internal issue' or as we know when the bigwigs face embarrassing situation, they prefer not to make an issue about it, lest it gets them more bad publicity.
