Skeleton in cupboard
The CBI has dug an old grave and pulled out the skeleton of a coal scam of 1999 where Odisha’s richest MlA Dilip Ray, the then Coal Minister in the NDA Government, is entangled on allegation of favouring a company. The ex-Minister when summoned by a special court has pleaded that he only asked the Screening Committee to ‘reexamine’ and never used the word ‘re-consider’. Politicians are clever enough to play down such incidents and Ray is no exception. He may avoid physical appearance in the special court but cannot avoid his appearance altogether as summon is followed by warrant of arrest. Be that as it may, his reaction that the issue of summon smacks of political conspiracy is nothing but kidding. He might be confident of giving the CBI a run for its money as his own Government at Centre can come to his rescue but the embarrassment he will suffer from this moment till he escapes the legal dragnet, will no doubt be interesting to watch. However, the conspiracy theory which he purports might be true on the backdrop of the political development in the State BJP rank which faces a probable split after the election of Basanta Panda as its chief. Opposition to Panda is brewing in Bijay Mohapatra’s camp where Dilip Ray stands tall with his financial power.
Playing to the gallery
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh’s potshot at Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and his Government was an act of playing to the gallery. His take on BJP and BJD “Naveen is patient, Modi is ventilator and CBI is oxygen” must have amused the public at large. But his comment about the GST Bill, “Congress supports it but Modi is not keen to let the bill passed”, is hardly convincing. People still remember how he played the spoilsport along with Bhakta Das and his mentor Rahul Gandhi in Anil Agarwal’s dream project of lanjigarh. He hit the last nail on mining of Niyamgiri and unless a miracle happens Niyamgiri will not be allotted to Vedanta at least in the next ten years. So is the case with Korea’s steel major Posco. Failure of the Government in supporting the alumina refinery project (VAl) and the Posco project has drawn a lot of flak and the State’s position as numero uno in the country in attracting investment nosedived. Jayaram’s comment reached its zenith when he supported the incidents of egg hurling and linked it to Congress culture. His comments on the Modi Government’s soft pedaling on two mega scams of coal and mining has been due to the support it wants to get from the BJD in the Rajya Sabha are but a manifestation of Jual Oram’s version. It was like killing two birds in one stone. All said and done, he should have rather tied up to his own camp and patched up internal differences rather than indulging in showbiz.
Hope against hope
Union Ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and Jual Oram are gradually becoming two parallel lines, perhaps without a meeting point and that is being the main hurdle in the BJP’s progress in Odisha. Both are CM aspirants commanding two different groups. Dharmendra group has been successful in coronation of Basanta Panda as the State head but it seems as if all is not well. Replacing an incompetent head by another is not a solution but there is always a hope against hope. Panda is a fighter and given a good support with a pat on his back, he may pave way for the much waited turnaround the party craves for. But the proverb, all is well that ends well, does fit into the present groove as a disgruntled group has already emerged. This was evident from Jual-Dilip-Bijay group’s absence which was conspicuous when Basanta Panda was declared the State chief.
The BJP’s harrowing experience of experimenting with State chief seems to be unending. Of the other aspirants, while Bijay Mohapatra cannot leave Jual-Dilip camp, the independent MlA Pratap Sarangi baptised into BJP has chosen to remain neutral. Among the erstwhile party presidents none other than Jual Oram is a CM material. But when BJP’s performance in the next election itself is shrouded in mystery, talking about a BJP CM is futile at this moment.
Nothing official
Going by the unofficial version of Collector, Rayagada Jagannath Mohanty, the Sub-Divisional level Kalahandi Utsav in Dharmgarh will soon meet its premature end. He was the chief guest on the second evening of the Utsav. The Collector who served as BDO Junagarh, Additional Tehsildar and Sub-Collector at Dharmagarh before assuming charge as Collector, Rayagada was holding a gossip session with his old friends. In a tete-a-tete with them he ventilated his feelings on the above lines which spread across this mini town like a wild fire. An observation by none other than Jagannath Mohanty, once a popular figure in Dharmagarh, reached the discerning audience and intellectuals within no time. According to him, a lack of tolerance and coherence among the intellectuals comprising lecturers, politicians and bureaucrats who were involved as organizers of the utsav will lead them nowhere and is bound to meet with a disaster. A champion of the students’ cause once upon a time, his observation in the form of a prediction has become the subject matter of an interesting debate and the hangover continues.
(The writer , a former PR Manager of SAIl in Rourkela Steel Plant, a former Vice-Chairman of PRSI, Orissa Chapter, is a functional Editor of English weekly ‘Kosal Horizon, email: baidyanathmishra123@rediffmail.com, Cell : 94370 83025)