Politics makes strange bedfellows. Once considered a formidable adversary of the BJD Government, Soumya Ranjan Patnaik merged his political outfit Aama Odisha with the BJD on March 6, 2018 and was subsequently sent to the Rajya Sabha as a BJD member. A brilliant academician, a former Oxonian, Soumya Ranjan had joined as a faculty at the BHU for a brief stint. He left the cloistered walls of the university and joined public life. He founded Odia daily ‘The Sambad’ and continues to be its editor through which he has revolutionised the field of Odia journalism. Of late, he has added to it with news channel ‘Kanak T.V’. He opened his political innings being elected to the 11th loka Sabha as a Congress candidate. Before it, he was in the BJP as its State vice-president. An irreverent iconoclast, he minces no words and is frank and outspoken that endears him to his friends and foes alike. A media baron with a difference, a zestful chronicler of events and issues in his editorials, he has metamorphosed from an angry young man of journalism and mellowed into a seasoned parliamentarian after having earned a berth for himself in the Upper House. As an intellectual, he is ready to aim his guns on various issues of leviathan character concerning Odisha as and when the occasion so demands. His joining the BJD has strengthened the party immensely. When asked about this, he emphatically affirms it without bothering for the shenanigans of the opposition leaders. A son-in-law of late CM JB Patnaik, Soumya Ranjan is full of appreciation for the legendary leader Biju Patnaik and terms him as a statesman by whom, he admits, he was also inspired. In an interview to The Pioneer, he spokes to Sugyan Choudhury at his residence justifying his transition.
All along, you had been an important opposition political prayer. Your joining the BJD has raised many eyebrows. How do you look at itIJ
People vote for a person. They do not vote for the same person or the party for all times. They too change their option; and when they do so, no eyebrows are raised. Similarly, when someone changes his mind to join a different political party, why should there be any problem; why should eyebrows be raisedIJ Personally speaking, I started a newspaper after I came back from the BHU. I have been in and out of politics for the last 25 years. I was born to a Congress family and married in a Congress family. The Congress party could not facilitate my style of functioning and I was rather unceremoniously shown the door. Hence, going back to the Congress was ruled out. Joining the BJP, where I spent quite some time, was not possible again. I was fighting for the people of Odisha for their identity, for their language and culture, for the chit fund-affected people and for the cause of farmers. When I found that the causes which I was championing for the people of are also the issues of the BJD, the BJD became my natural choice and natural ally. I had no other choices left but to strengthen the party together on a collective basic for the larger interests of the people of our State.
What was the most important point of inspiration for you to join the BJDIJ
The choice before me was imperative as I found that the issues for which I stood for are also those for which Naveenbabu has started fighting for. Naveenbabu has proved time and again that the people of Odisha are with him. Of late, he has made Odia the official language of the State under an Act; and anybody violating it is punishable. He has also taken initiative for returning the money to the chit fund depositors. I am sure something is going to be done by Naveenbabu for the agrarian communities. When all these things started happening, I thought I could be a stakeholder in it and persuade the BJD to take up these issues. If I wanted to be politically relevant, I should be working in tandem with the BJD.
As political observers opine, the BJD has got strengthened by your joining. What is your response to thisIJ
If observers think that the joining of a small political entity has strengthened the ruling party then one should feel elated and great about it. Whenever I had joined any political party in past, I wished the party to be strengthened and win elections. That is how I must now think about strengthening of the BJD and how the party shall win elections so that we shall remain politically relevant.
Do you think that Naveenbabu and the BJD are going to be a major player in national political scenario by the 2019 electionsIJ
look, the BJD has no political pretensions in national politics. We have 20 members in loka Sabha and nine in Rajya Sabha. All these lS members taken together cannot form a Government at the Centre. But in a critical situation or on political compulsions or during an impasse, these members are a great number. They can influence the way national politics or the political scenario is to move towards a decisive point. Similarly, the nine BJD members in the RS are very important for the Deputy Chairman position of the Upper House. All eyes are now on the BJD. However, Naveenbabu has made it clear that the BJD must maintain equidistance from the two national mainstream political parties, the Congress and the BJP.
What and how would you raise issues of Odisha in the RSIJ
Odisha is a very unfortunate State despite the kindness of beauty and bounty of nature accorded to it by lord Jagannath. We have pockets of poverty around plenty. If you look at mineral resources, it is the envy of many. Similarly, we are endowed with a large precious forest cover and 480 km of seacoast, which no other State has. But the irony is that poor people are living in our State. Hence, it is the duty of the State Government to catapult the State’s economic growth trajectory ahead of other States. But unfortunately in a federal system, the State cannot grow unless the Central Government is a willing partner to it. The Mahanadi water dispute is case in point. Unfortunately, the Central Government is not playing its rightful role in solving the imbroglio. Hence, I shall raise my voice in the Upper House for special packages or for Special Category State so that our long underdeveloped State shall be able to march ahead.
Your political adversaries maintain that there is a tacit understanding between the BJD and the Congress with the personal chemistry of your relationship unchanged with PCC president Niranjan Patnaik.
At the beginning I told you that I was born in a Congress family and married in a Congress family. People in past referred to my relationship with JB Patnaik and Niranjan Patnaik when I was in the BJP. In my opinion, political affiliations and personal relationships should not be equated with each other. I give you an example although there are many such. KV Singh Deo is the BJP legislature Party in the State. His own uncle AU Singh Deo is a BJD leader. Even, KV’s father Rajraj Singh Deo and the latter’s brother AU Singh Deo were working for two different parties. Hence, people are reading too much into it. Our leader and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has categorically stated that we must maintain equidistance from both the BJP and the Congress. Then, where does the question of linking me with Niranjanbabu ariseIJ These are all abstract and irrelevant. In my opinion, political affiliations and family bonds are altogether two different things. You mediapersons and political observers read too much into it. I must tell you that I have no political adversaries as I have changed my affiliations many times and; in each political party I have my friends.