Seemingly, all is not well for our “clean” Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and his pet party Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in the wake of several scams and scandals. In cricketing term, Naveen’s fourth innings is seen shaky and vulnerable. He is visibly on back foot now.
Just four months back, there was huge jubilation when the BJD won elections for the fourth consecutive time on the popularity of Naveen securing 117 of the 147 Assembly seats. Nobody had expected that the victory euphoria would dissipate so soon and BJD MPs, MlAs and party functionaries would be in the CBI net for their alleged involvement in different scams and loots.
Naveen and his party are now neck-deep in corruptions and controversies. The issues include allotment of plots/houses by the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) and other Government agencies to influential persons under the discretionary quota; land allotted to set up nursing homes and hospitals used for other purposes; as many as hundred acres of forestland grabbed by powerful people at Ghangpatna on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar; BJD politicians’ link with chit fund companies; and lack of a long-term policy to deal with potato shortage. And it is also expected that the Supreme Court may order a CBI inquiry into the mega mining scam as per the recommendation of the Shah Commission.
It is axiomatic truth that corruptions have been threatening the very edifice of the Odisha administration for over past several years. It is believed that all these are happening in the knowledge of Chief Minister naveen Patnaik, but “Mr Clean” has been staying in power by winning elections and tolerating the malaise.
The CBI inquiry of unauthorised collections of public deposits has opened up ugly links of BJD politicians with the sham chit fund companies. During Naveen’s regime for over past one and a half decades, almost three hundred ponzi companies have been reportedly registered and they have collected some thousand crores of rupees from several lakhs of depositors. But the CBI’s net will spread over 44 chit fund companies only as ordered by the apex court despite the strong opposition by the State Government not to have such an inquiry.
The reasons of the Government’s such opposition are clear now. The CBI has already grille BJD MP Rama Chandra Hansda, two BJD MlAs Pravat Tripathy and Pranab Balabantaray and some other party functionaries for their alleged obnoxious links with ponzi firms. And more significantly, the chief legal advisor to Government, Advocate General Asok Mohanty, has resigned and faced CBI interrogation for his land deal with Artha Tatwa chief Pradeep Sethy. The trend shows that when more chit fund companies will be scanned, more skeletons of illegal money trailing will be tumbling out of the cupboard.
Kalpataru Das, a Rajya Sabha member, so far a good trustworthy friend of Naveen, has seriously dented the image of the BJD and the boss for his greed for land by illegally acquiring land under the discretionary quota. Kalpataru emerged as another Pyarimohan Mohapatra wielding much power being a close associate of Naveen. Kalpataru has already been forced to resign from party leadership in Rajya Sabha, but it has hardly improved Naveen’s present dented image.
As observed, Naveen puts his trust on his friends and he fails. Should not it be construed that Naveen lacks the quality of choosing his friends and, thus, his trust misplacedIJ Perhaps, a long fifteen years’ of unbridled rule has worn out Naveen and fatigue has overpowered him; and fatigue makes a person less innovative and less willing to take risks. Otherwise, corruptions would not have been so rampant in Odisha. Naveen’s widely-talked-about integrity has failed to prevent corruptions. Integrity is not about financial only; it is about intellectual and professional too.
Public knows all and they give the message through their wise decisions in different elections that they should not be taken for granted. A strong thirty years’ Marxist rule was ultimately rejected by the people in West Bengal when the left leaders there became arrogant. leftist cadres became monstrous, lethargic and sycophancy-infested and the Stare administration and the think-tank, becoming old and obsolete, failed to produce any new creative ideas. It is rumoured that sycophants are also around Naveen and they blacken his image, which is the BJD’s only asset.
Sometime back, a Minister of Odisha at a public meeting termed Naveen as the BJD’s lord Krishna of the Mahabharata age probably without knowing the consequence of this comparison. If so, the end of the BJD will be disastrous as it happened to the Yadav clan ultimately. The legend tells that when the Yadavs, being intoxicated, were unruly and fought against each other to perish and the Yadav chief Krishna was mysteriously silent. Finally, Krishna himself killed his sons and wreaked havoc as the sea crossed the shore engulfing Dwaraka. Krishna was calm, unmoved.
And let it not happen, for God’s sake, to the BJD!
(The writer is an advocate, an author and a columnist and a former national President and Secretary General, National Audit Federation under CAG. E-mail Id: gcparida@gmail.com)