During the infamous Orissa famine of 1866, Sir Cecil Beadon, the then Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal Presidency, did nothing to alleviate deaths from the famine as he was surprisingly concerned about not tampering with the natural laws of economics.
He remarked that "Such visitations of providence as these, no Government can do much either to prevent or alleviate, and that if he attempted to alleviate deaths from famine, he would consider himself no better than a dacoit or thief.”Rightly, he was relieved of the post after a Commission of Inquiry in Britain.
However, William Hunter, the Scottish historian who had chronicled the horrors of famine as the British Raj Inspector of Schools for the South-Western Division, believed that better administration and prevention of future famines were possible through historically informed re?ection on current experience. One and a half centuries later, Hunter’s hope was translated into action. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik was able to protect the people of Odisha from the onslaught of recurring natural disasters by learning from the past and developing appropriate preparedness mechanism. The Odisha Government was felicitated by the UN office for Disaster Risk Reduction in 2013 for its disaster preparedness activities that saved thousand lives during very severe cyclone, Phailin. One finds another turn -around scenario in the recent past.
Starvation deaths were common phenomena in Odisha prior to Naveen’s era. On August 29, 2001, the NHRC had taken suo-motu cognizance of a few national media reports on Kashipur starvation deaths and had issued fax-notice to the then Chief Secretary, asking for action taken report. That was a time when Naveen Patnaik, was just stepping into Chief Minister’s office for the first time. After sixteen years, World Bank’s Country Director Junaid Ahmad met Chief Minister, Patnaik in September 2017 and praised his transformative efforts in reducing poverty and infant mortality. Odisha had alarmingly high poverty rate of 66.18 per cent during 1973-74 which had declined to 32.59 per cent by 2011-12 and reduced further with the passage of time. Naveenian development model is not restricted to welfarism but carries along with it the Juggernaut economic development programmes. In 2019, the World Bank praised the Odisha Government for bringing remarkable turnaround in the State’s economy by bringing it at par with the best performing States.
It appreciated the growth of average monthly income of the agricultural household to double and increase in the Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of State to 11.6 per cent in 2016-17 as against the CAGR of the country at 8.6 per cent.
When one attempts to compare Naveenism with other contemporary Chief Ministers of India, a vacuum appears as there are no regional party leaders who have two consecutive decades of incumbency charts. The former CM of Sikkim, Pawan Chamling, had remained in office for 24 consecutive years as a regional political outfit leader but his model cannot be compared to Naveenism due to small size of Sikkim . However, the tenure of regional party Chief Ministers can be lowered to a bottom line of 2 decades to compare their work with Naveenism. Similarly, comparison of Naveensim with the CMs of national parties can be made by excluding certain features if they have completed minimum two decades in office.
However, while comparing Naveenism with the Chief Ministers of the States like West Bengal , Tamilnadu ,Andhrapradesh and Maharastra, we have to keep in mind that these States were already developed by British during colonial period unlike Odisha. Naveenism can have comparison at international level too. Democratic values are one such domain. In one of the latest international gatherings at Polish Parliament ,on June 27, 2000 , 106 democratic nations of the world, including India, declared a historic statement known as the “Warsaw Declaration Toward a Community Of Democracies” which says , "We will encourage political leaders to uphold the values of tolerance and compromise that underpin effective democratic systems, and to promote respect for pluralism so as to enable societies to retain their multi-cultural character, and at the same time maintain stability and social cohesion.
We reject ethnic and religious hatred, violence and other forms of extremism. We will also promote civil society, including women's organizations, non-Governmental organisations, labour and business associations, and independent media in their exercise of their democratic rights.” Naveenism adheres to all these norms of the declaration in both letter and spirit. Naveenian development model have many similarities with the European Nordic social democratic welfarism model. Social democracy as a policy regime advocates economic and social interventions to promote social justice within the framework of a liberal-democratic polity and a capitalist-oriented mixed economy.
Many people in countries operating under what is often referred to as “the American model” of capitalistic enterprise see the Nordic model as an attractive alternative to the “winner-take-all brand of capitalism” that has resulted in poverty, lack of services and tremendous income disparity. Similarly, Naveenian development model has similarities with Brazil’s growth model which has components of agriculture development, gradual shift from primary to service sector, Bolsa Familia – a family income transfer programme like KALIA, activating educational and health sectors.
Naveenism has similarities with few most popular world leaders who have remained in office over decades. Angela Merkel , the current Chancellor of Germany, is one such leader who is very popular and powerful in a highly democratically sensitive nation , Germany and in the EU. When she assumed office in 2005, critics were skeptical about her sustainability but she stayed on. She speaks less, wears ordinary clothes , lives in a small flat.
Merkel has a keen instinct for shifts in public opinion and is swift to occupy new ground which maddens the opposition and they often complain that she is “stealing their clothes”, making it difficult for them to develop a distinctive policy platform.
Other new leaders like Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, French President Emmanuel Macron appear to be sharing Naveenism values