Bhuj earthquake changed Modi's political journey. How it made him Gujarat CM

Prime Minister Narendra Modi recalled the Bhuj earthquake as a defining episode in his political journey and his first major test in government. The disaster, which struck 25 years ago amid political churn in Gujarat, became the backdrop to Modi's elevation from a BJP organiser to the state's Chief Minister.PM Narendra Modi, then chief minister of Gujarat returned to the state after six years of political exile from 1995 to 2001. (Image: India Today Group)When Narendra Modi took oath as Gujarat's Chief Minister on October 7, 2001, he was stepping into a job he had never held before. He had spent years building the BJP's organisation, but had no experience running a government.His first major test as an administrator was already waiting for him — the devastation left behind by the January 26, 2001, earthquake in Kutch.Twenty-five years later, as Modi marks a quarter-century without a break at the head of governments — first as Gujarat Chief Minister and then as Prime Minister — he has himself singled out the Bhuj earthquake as one of the defining experiences of his political journey."The Bhuj earthquake taught me to remain steadfast in rebuilding," Modi said on October 7 (Wednesday), while recalling the lessons he had drawn from different events during his 25 years in government. But Bhuj was more than a lesson in administration for Modi. It came at a crucial juncture in Gujarat politics, when an earthquake, an unpopular government and a string of electoral setbacks combined to create the circumstances for the return of an organisational politician who had been away from the state, working for the BJP in northern India. Modi returned to Gujarat and eventually took charge of the Chief Minister's office in Gandhinagar. Narendra Modi, then BJP general secretary, is seen with LK Advani, who was then the Home Minister, and then-Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee as they visit an injured earthquake victim at an Army hospital in Bhuj in 2001. (Image: AFP) WHEN GUJARAT WAS ALREADY USED TO CHANGING CMsGujarat had gone through a lot of political instability in the years before Modi took over as the CM. The BJP formed its first government in Gujarat in March 1995 under Keshubhai Patel. But Patel's first stint as Chief Minister lasted only until October that year, when he stepped down amid an internal revolt led by the saffron party's another prominent face, Shankersinh Vaghela.Suresh Mehta then became Chief Minister, serving from October 1995 to September 1996.After a brief spell of President's Rule in the state, Vaghela became CM in October 1996. He left the BJP and formed the Rashtriya Janata Party, while his successor Dilip Parikh headed the government from October 1997 to March 1998.Keshubhai returned as Chief Minister in March 1998 and remained in the post until October 2001.In the roughly six-and-a-half years before Modi became CM, Gujarat had already seen four different faces occupy the Chief Minister's post from a single party, which shows the factional battles that had marked the BJP's early years in power in Gujarat. And Modi entered this space as a party organiser.BJP'S MAN WHO WAS BUILDING THE PARTY, LATER BECAME THE CMBy the time Modi was chosen to lead Gujarat in 2001, he had already spent years building a reputation as a BJP organiser, first in the state and later at the national level.He joined the BJP in 1987 after years in the RSS and became general secretary of the party's Gujarat unit. He was credited with helping build the BJP's organisation in the state and with the party's electoral rise, including its victory in the 1995 Gujarat Assembly election.In 1995, Modi moved to the national level and was appointed BJP national secretary, with responsibility for party affairs in Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. It was not merely a routine organisational assignment. His growing influence in Gujarat had triggered friction with several senior state leaders, particularly Shankersinh Vaghela, amid complaints about his growing interference in the state’s politics. The party’s central leadership eventually moved him out of Gujarat, giving him a wider national role.In 1998, Modi became the BJP's National General Secretary (Organisation), a position that put him at the centre of the party's organisational machinery.So when the earthquake struck on January 26, 2001, Modi was a senior national level BJP functionary. He nevertheless became involved in the aftermath.Modi later recalled that he reached Kutch on the second day of the earthquake. This was Modi's return to his home state after nearly six years of exile. In 2022, while inaugurating the Smriti Van memorial in Bhuj, he recalled, "I remember when the earthquake happened, I reached here on the second day itself. I was not the Chief Minister then, I was a simple party worker. I didn't know how, and how many people I would be able to help. But I decided that I will be here among the people in the hour of grief. And, when I became Chief Minister, the experience of service helped me a lot."Contemporary accounts also describe Modi, then the BJP's national general secretary, as closely monitoring the post-earthquake situation and accompanying Keshubhai Patel on an aerial survey of the affected areas.The state government, along with the Centre, armed forces, local administrations and a large network of voluntary organisations, handled the immediate relief and rescue operation. The Gujarat State Disaster Management Authority was established in February 2001, soon after the earthquake, and a comprehensive rehabilitation and reconstruction programme followed. But the government's handling of the disaster became a political liability for Keshubhai.WHEN BHUJ BECAME A POLITICAL TURNING POINT IN MODI's CAREERThe earthquake had killed thousands and devastated large parts of Kutch. The initial response was criticised for delays in rescue and the removal of debris. An India Today Magazine report from February 2001 described the government as struggling to mobilise cranes and earth-moving equipment in the crucial early period after the quake.The earthquake, therefore, became a part of the many other political problems for the Keshubhai government.By 2001, the BJP leadership was also dealing with electoral setbacks and complaints about the administration. The party lost bypolls, including the Sabarmati Assembly seat in August 2001. These bypolls setback, a combination of political discontent, criticism of the government's performance and the handling of the earthquake weakened Keshubhai's position.The BJP's central leadership, then led by Prime Minister Atal Bihar Vajpayee, eventually turned to Modi, and on October 7, 2001, he took oath as Gujarat Chief Minister.Suddenly, a man who had spent his political career organising a party was responsible for running a state whose most pressing challenge was rebuilding after one of the country's worst natural disasters.FROM RELIEF WORK TO RECONSTRUCTIONFor CM Modi, Bhuj became the first major administrative project of his political career.A national disaster-reconstruction programme was already under way when he took office. His government reviewed the reconstruction machinery and sought to accelerate the work. A National Institute of Disaster Management study of the Kutch earthquake records that Modi, after becoming Chief Minister in October 2001, reviewed the reconstruction programme and felt that it needed an additional push.His government also retained and repositioned several officials who had worked on earthquake rehabilitation.A fortnight later, during a two-day tour of Kutch, Modi reshaped his top team by bringing several officials with direct experience of the earthquake response into the Chief Minister's Office. PK Mishra, who is currently the Principal Secretary of the Prime Minister, was then the CEO of the Gujarat State Disaster Management Authority (GSDMA) in March 2001, was made Modi's principal secretary while retaining his position as GSDMA chief.Anil Mukim, who had served as Kutch collector during the critical months after the earthquake, was made additional principal secretary to the CMO and continued as chairman of the Bhuj Development Authority. Arvind Sharma, who headed the Rapar Development Authority, was also brought into the CMO as secretary.By retaining Mishra as GSDMA's CEO while placing him in the CMO, the Modi government sought to put reconstruction decisions closer to the Chief Minister's Office.The reconstruction was not Modi's work alone. It involved the Gujarat government, the Centre, local administrations, engineers, international agencies, NGOs, volunteers and, crucially, the people of Kutch themselves. The Gujarat government later implemented a large reconstruction programme with assistance from the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and other institutions.But politically, Modi made the rebuilding of Kutch central to his early record as Chief Minister.Over the following years, Bhuj and Kutch became part of the narrative around Modi's Gujarat model, in which disaster recovery was linked to infrastructure, attracting investment, expanding water and electricity networks and creating new economic opportunities.Modi return to that story in 2022. While inaugurating the Smriti Van memorial, he said the dreams and resolutions made in Kutch in 2001-02 had been realised. He pointed to new schools and colleges, healthcare infrastructure and improved water access as markers of the region's transformation.THE BHUJ REBUILDING THAT SHAPED MODI's IMAGEOver 25 years later, since the Bhuj earthquake, the story might seem linear — the earthquake struck, Modi helped rebuild Bhuj, and that made him Chief Minister. But the ground reality and politics were more complicated.Modi was already an influential BJP organiser before the earthquake. The BJP leadership had reasons to consider him for Gujarat that went beyond disaster management.Keshubhai's government was facing political and administrative difficulties, and the party needed to recover before the 2002 Assembly election. The earthquake and the government's handling of its aftermath were part of that political context, not the sole reason for the leadership change.Bhuj gave Modi a chance to demonstrate himself in governance. He had spent the 1980s and 1990s building the organisation and managing campaigns for the party. After he became the CM, Bhuj was the first ground on which he had to deliver.Twenty-five years later, Modi's own recollection of Bhuj in his speech is telling.For a politician whose career has since stretched from Gandhinagar to New Delhi, Bhuj was where the organiser first had to prove himself.- Ends(Written by Anand Singh)