In my earlier column here, I had mentioned that just winning elections do not vouch for good governance. But a common question is being asked as to why at all Naveen Patnaik and his party, the BJD, are winning elections with enlarged margins every time and anti-incumbency does not work here although their governance is grossly messed up.
A record shows that in the past several years, almost three quarters of incumbent Governments in India are voted out in general elections because of weak governance and non-delivery of assured promises. But Naveen in Odisha triumphs and the BJD sees in its supremo a macho leadership, a messiah par excellence.
Mainly there are three factors which cause the change of a Government in election. First, an incompetent Government, which in lenin’s term is Government impotence. Second, the institutional failures which effect a mal-governance, and, thirdly, rather most importantly, a widespread public discontentment against the ruler.
The first two factors exist in Odisha. They are visibly clear. But these two are not enough to topple the apple cart of Naveen and check the BJD’s winning spree because the third prerequisite, i.e. public discontentment is absent.
The Government’s incompetency is quite striking. It has so far brushed the white shirt of Naveen black and dirty. His BJD is neck-deep in corruptions and scams. Mismanagement of the Central assistance earmarked for improving the qualities of lives of common people is dangerously horrible. The State is confronted with the scams of worst kind involving political leaders, civil servants and corporate. The deficit of trust and ethics is well visible in governance
Take the case of illegal land grabbing issue in the State. Reportedly, the Taskforce headed by Additional Chief Secretary (Revenue) Taradatt has already submitted a report in the Chief Minister’s Office that as many as 90 babus, both working and retired, and around 60 leaders belonging to various political parties have taken more than one plot /flats into their possession under the Discretionary Quota (DQ). The DQ for allotment of Government land and plots is exclusively meant for marginalised and poor landless people. But shamelessly, some top bureaucrats, police officials and even some judges along with political leaders and Ministers have grabbed lands which are not due to them. They must have twisted the rules in their favour of which they are the custodians. Actually, the desire for land is so intense in a man that it hardly distinguishes between poor and rich.
The Pandora’s box of the chit fund scam is gradually opening up by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) under the supervision of the Supreme Court. This ponzi scam is likely to implode seriously. As alleged, more than a hundred illegal money deposit collection companies including the notorious Artha Tatwa, Seashore and Navadigant have mopped up thousands of crores of rupees from lakhs of poor investors. A report says that almost one-third people of the total population of Odisha have become victims of this fraud. The ponzi firms have grown and expanded under the patronage of political leaders and the Government and money trailing stretches into media, sports and entertainment worlds too. Consequently, some alleged cheats involved in the scam are being interrogated, arrested and sent to jail including an MP and an MlA of the ruling party and are languishing in the Jharapada jail.
Still BJD leaders boast, and why not; they enjoy the confidence of four crores people of Odisha because they are winning the elections due to Naveen’s “cleanness”. Obviously, powers not only make one corrupt, but make him arrogant too, the BJD politicians justify.
A long regime of Naveen has not brought about any spectacular improvement in the lives of people. People still starve; farmers commit suicide; mothers sell their children even from the womb; and youths both educated and uneducated rush to outside States in search of livelihoods. Eradication of poverty is a dream yet, but elections go on.
In the Raghuram Rajan committee report on the States’ backwardness, Odisha is the most backward. The panel headed by Raghuram Rajan, wo is the RBI Governor now, has prepared the report working on the Multi Dimensional Index. The Index categorises the backwardness of a State based on monthly per capita consumption expenditure, education, health, household amenities, poverty rate, financial inclusiveness and connectivity. On these points, Odisha has scored the least points.
Naveen & Co has ruled the State for the most part of the period in which the neo liberal economy is in practice in India since 1990s. Certainly, the budgetary allotments have increased for the Union and the States as well during this period. The country has seen a new growth story. But seemingly, Odisha lacks a similar story to be proud of. The electricity supply is erratic here; the road condition is dismal excepting the National Highways and PMGSY roads; the purchasing power of the rural poor has not increased because of corruption and diversion of funds in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS); the midday meal programme is not to the expectation and irregularities loom large in State’s mining operations. The CAG reports reveal these ugly stories.
There is also rampant corruption in every Government office to procure a just document — a birth certificate, a driving licence, a gas connection and even a hospital bed.
The deprivation in Odisha is, therefore, undoubtedly huge. But strangely, there is no widespread public resentment which triggers a change in a ruling regime. The love for Naveen is apparently intact. The reason is that the people of Odisha have very low expectation, no matter how steeply their standards fall. There are a good number of people for whom a small benefit signals a tremendous improvement and they claim that they have not got such benefits earlier. The one-rupee rice, a free blanket in winter, free books and dresses for school students and free firewood for a dead body to be burnt in the cremation ground have made the Odisha people satisfied. The same is the feeling of the State’s rising middle class who is yet burry the ghost of the 1990s’ financial hardships.
(The writer is a lawyer, an author and columnist, a former national president and Secretary General, National Audit Federation (under CAG). E-mail: gcparida@gmail.com. M: 9861469328)