Shivraj Singh Chouhan Plants Trees in Memory of Late Mother Kashi Bai
Synopsis
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A son's grief found roots in the earth on Friday. Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan visited his ancestral village Jait and planted saplings in memory of his late mother, Smt. Kashi Bai, in a deeply personal tribute that blended filial devotion with an enduring ecological hope.
Posting on X with visible emotion, Chouhan wrote: 'Aaj apne grih gram Jait mein bhaavuk man se' — 'Today, with a moved heart, in my home village of Jait, I planted saplings in the memory of my revered mother, the late Smt. Kashi Bai.' He reflected that a mother's love and warmth remains a cool shade over one's life forever, and prayed that her blessings continue to watch over the family.
Shade for birds, clean air for the earth
The minister's words went beyond personal mourning. He expressed the wish that as the saplings grow into trees, they offer shelter to birds, insects, and other creatures, and that the oxygen they release keeps the environment clean and beautiful. 'Just as these trees grow, so too will mother's memories remain ever green,' he wrote — signing off with the invocation 'Narmade Har!', a salutation to the River Narmada that runs through the heartland of Madhya Pradesh.
Village Jait, a homecoming in grief
For Chouhan — who served four consecutive terms as Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh before taking charge at the Union cabinet — village Jait represents his roots. The act of returning home to plant trees in a parent's name is a longstanding ritual in rural central India, where planting a tree for the departed is considered both an act of remembrance and a living offering to the natural world. The 'Narmade Har' invocation underscores the deeply Madhya Pradesh identity that Chouhan has consistently worn, even after moving to Delhi's ministerial corridors.
No policy announcements or official government programmes are linked to this gesture. This was simply a son at his mother's memorial — but the image of a senior Union minister kneeling in soil at his village carries a resonance that political India reads instinctively: the powerful returning to the ordinary, the public figure choosing the personal.