DAMODAR ROUT: A GIFTED ARTIST IN ONE-UPMANSHIP
The confusion over whose responsibility it is to procure potato from the farmers confirmed, if confirmation was indeed needed, that the Cooperation Minister Damodar Rout is a gifted artist in one-upmanship. He can put down anyone who crosses his path with his sarcastic one-liners. The master fabulist also invents stories for his aggrandisement. On bumper production of potato and its distress sale in the absence of Government procurement, he challenged any Minister who could say that the matter was brought to his direct notice. He was unaware that the Government had given an advance payment of Rs 50 crore to the Nafed and the Markfed to buy potato. He even roguishly said that he came to know about the farmers’ sufferings only when the matter was raised in the Assembly. Such ostrich-like behaviour is seldom seen outside the genius of the flightless African bird. But the meddlesome blabbermouth had the time to comment on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s impropriety in talking directly to the State Chief Secretaries. His attitude of indifference and even downright noncooperation when the State is poised to reap the benefits from the Potato Mission it had launched to achieve self-sufficiency in its production so that the State and the people don’t once again go through the searing humiliation they suffered last year from the Mamata Banerjee-dictated on-again-off-again supply of the vegetable from West Bengal can only be viewed as an act of a Mission-wrecker. Rout was contemptuously dismissive of his Cabinet colleagues and rudely ticked them off for not consulting him personally on procurement. His acid rants exposed his edgy relation with other Ministers. Generally, Ministers fear his testosterone-fuelled nastiness like a communicable disease. His ego is swollen beyond its optimal size. He is the most ornery among all Ministers, notorious for both giving and taking offence. The oafish old sod refuses to play ball with anyone except on his own terms. He appears to revel in his self-image as a Minister a cut above the rest. Arising out of his uncooperative attitude, when the Government got stuck in a state of near-complete incoherence, the Speaker had to call a meeting of the concerned Ministers to iron out the kinks. As soon as Rout was given the honour of presiding over an inter-Ministerial meeting, the confusion over procurement melted away like summer snow. Quite why Rout’s increasingly obnoxious behaviour is being tolerated by the most powerful Chief Minister in the State’s history is really a subject worthy of a thesis.
BDA OFFICER PAID PRICE FOR DARING MIGHTY PRASANNA PATASANI
To the howls of public anger and it deserved every decibel of it, the Government suddenly transferred BDA Enforcement Officer DP Dash, his sixth in four years, when he was carrying out the much-neglected but the most-needed demolition of illegal constructions all over the city. His bravura performance in recovering more than a thousand acres of Government land from the mafia-style land grabbers had held the citizens rapt. Ordinary folks believe that Dash paid the price for pulling down a patently illegal construction popularly known as Patasani Mutt because of the five-time MP Prasanna Patasani’s association with it. The run-up to that demolition carried wide media coverage and Dash was suddenly seen as a dragon-slayer. But the poor little fellow didn’t know that power rubs off on those who constantly orbit around powerful people. Patasani has always followed Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik like a fawning groupie. The Patanjali yogi has, of course, denied that he is the guardian angel of the mutt. But all accused deny their involvements. When Dash got his marching orders so soon after the high-profile demolition, who can blame the folks for joining the two dotsIJ
STATE IS SITTING DUCK IN RElIANCE’S THERMONUClEAR WAR
With Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik having a bee in his bonnet about the Nabakalebar, his plenipotentiary representative Suresh Mohapatra is working overtime at Puri to ensure that his master’s faith in him is fully justified. At the moment, Mohapatra’s principal job is Chief Temple Administrator with the mission to make Patnaik’s vanity project a grand success. He is moonlighting as the Energy Secretary, a part-time job he does in his spare time. This is happening at a time when the Reliance Infrastructure (RI) has waged a fierce legal battle against the Government and the OERC over the cancellation of licences to its power distribution companies. When one of the country’s best-known legal eagles Kapil Sibal is spearheading the RI’s case in the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity (ATE), our Energy Secretary is running around like a headless chicken at Puri. Who will the lawyers representing the Government and the OERC consult in formulating the legal strategyIJ The Secretary and the authorised lawyer must be in constant touch with each other in such a high-stakes case. If the Secretary is not available for consultation or unable to give his time and attention, the case is bound to suffer. The halfhearted limpness with which the Government is fighting the case can have, God forbid, only disastrous consequences for the State. Serious issues arising out of renationalisation of power distribution and upward revision of power tariff are festering because the Secretary is missing from the scene. At least Nero was fiddling; but our Government is deaf, dumb and blind.
BJD-BJP BONHOMIE WIll SURVIVE HICCUPS OVER AAHAR
With quixotic flair, Naveen Patnaik’s Government had announced that its subsidised meal scheme, Aahar, would be launched on April 1. But much to its embarrassment, three Central PSUs, MCl, NAlCO and RSP, have declined at the last moment to fund the scheme. This has set off a blazing row by point-scoring politicians from the BJD and the BJP. The BJD accuses the BJP of pressurising the PSUs to withdraw from the scheme even after signing the MoUs with the Government. But the BJP flatly denies the charge, saying it is the decision of the autonomous PSUs and the party has nothing to do with it. But the point is why did the Government make an ass of itself without getting firm financial commitment from the PSUsIJ Everybody knows, and the Government knows it better, that MoUs are not worth the paper they are written on. They are at best expressions of interest and each side is free to pull out at any time without assigning any reason. But people wonder how the BJD was so naive as to expect that the BJP Government at the Centre will allow its PSUs to be milked to promote the former’s political interests. The BJD knows it has clearly overreached itself. It will play the victim card, but it will not be deal-breaker.
(saratpattanayak@hotmail.com (M) 9437962121)