This face-to-face with Ramesh Bains, Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, began with The DayAfter Editor-in-Chief Sunil Dang and Think Tank Director Yogendra Bali, posing the question: What are your perceptions and what are you doing to take your beloved Chhatisgarh from darkness to light? His answer comprised a long and biting critique of the shape of things under the Congress Chief Minister, Ajit Jogi, and a crisp recipe of what he would do if the BJP ever came to power in the State.

Highlighting the great expectations which the birth of Chhatisgarh had aroused in the hearts of the people, Bains said: "When Chhatisgarh was in Madhya Pradesh, the people of Chhatisgarh thought that there was no development possible as long as the region was part of Madhya Pradesh. They often gave the example of Punjab and Haryana and said that when smaller States were carved out from big States, there would be development and progress. For a long time since the linguistic States were created in 1956, the demand for the creation of Chhatisgarh had arisen. But at that time the voice of the elected representatives of Chhatisgarh was not that strong and powerful. They could not create enough pressure that the demand of their representatives might be accepted."

The Minister, a popular elected representative of the Chhatisgarh region for several terms, highlighted the role the BJP government, led by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee played in the peaceful creation of Chhatisgarh. He said: "But, as the BJP had said in its election manifestoes in 1996, 1998 and 1999, we got the State created when Atal Ji became the Prime Minister. The creation of the State itself was a miraculous happening. Till today, no State had been created without violent agitations preceding its creation, without conflict, without violence, without killing and bloodshed, without destruction and damage to public and private property. But Chhatisgarh was born peacefully as a State. We thought when Chhatisgarh will become a State, whichever party constitutionally emerged as the largest, would form the government. Even though there was not much difference of strength between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress (the Congress got 48 seats in the new State Assembly and the BJP 36) our leaders told us that we shall not pursue the politics of destruction and disruption. It was the first tribal state of India and we chose to set a healthy convention. We decided that the Congress would form the government and we would sit in the Opposition. The Congress formed the Government and ruled for all these months."

Then the Minister listed one after another "the faults, failures and misdeeds of the Congress Government led by Ajit Jogi" and did not see a single good thing done by it. He tried to make a strong case for standing up to rampant corruption, utter lack of transparency and accountability in administration and the iron rule of the Congress Chief Minister. He insisted that there was no progress and development in the State even though crores of rupees had been pumped into the State as aid, subsidies and funding of Centrally-sponsored projects. He squarely charged that funds were not utilised for the purpose and projects for which they were allocated. If at all some construction and allied projects were launched, the benefit went to people outside Chhatisgarh. It seemed whenever the next elections came in Chhatisgarh, Bains and his activist BJP colleagues would have a long list of charges and allegations ready against the incumbent government, to raise popular wrath and will for change.

Bains identified several projects and areas of bungling in the State ranging from food-for-work, construction of roads and works and diamond mining, which called for investigation and explanation. It was one long chargesheet. He alleged that the mineral wealth of the State was being smuggled out with the administration turning a blind eye to the continuous crime. Even the Vidhan Sabha committee's inquiries were ignored by the State Government, he stated.