The beads of sweat in a worried BJD’s face are palpable. So far defiant and self-assured, the BJD seems to be somewhat perturbed these days, especially after the poster war it waged with the BJP for the Paradip oil refinery.
The two parties crossed the laxmanrekha of ethics and propriety when they fought for taking credit for the refinery. The tearing and smearing of dirt on posters and verbal and physical attacks among the leaders and workers of the two parties were a proof of it.
May be for this reason Prime Minster Narendra Modi was not seen looking eye to eye with Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at the IOCl meet on February 7 last, while BJD leaders, including local Paradip MlA and Excise Minster Damodar Rout, were ignored. A cash-strapped State’s helplessness was made public, when Chief Minister Patnaik repeated the appeal for special category status (SCS) at the IOCl refinery meeting though such issue should have been taken up at more appropriate forums.
The Chief Minister did this when the State’s demand has been for long ignored by the Centre. latest when the Niti Ayog chief had been to the State, he had clarified that the SCS issue in respect of Odisha was irrelevant. But Patnaik insisted on raising the issue at a public meeting and to his dismay, Modi simply lent a
deaf ear.
The BJP and the BJD have gone far beyond the poster war and are now geared up to confront each other on specific issues. The idea or, rather say, politics is to get the upper hand in disapproving of each other’s claim for love for Odisha.
The BJD has now announced to convene farmer’s conventions at Kalahandi and Balangir on February 18, three days ahead of Modi’s address to farmers at Bargarh on February 21. Here, again the two parties will flex muscle over moulding the farmers.
Already the BJD and Congress have held farmers meetings in Bargarh at a time when farm crisis has gone deeper and farmer’s suicide has been continuing unabated. The meetings have failed to assuage the pain suffered by the debt-ridden farmers, leave alone convincing them to refrain from killing self out of frustration.