Though Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik made his soft-spoken colleague Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak to bear the cross for the cause of ‘politics of morality’. He, indeed, in one go, has uncapped the Pandora’s Box of his Government. After all, Jimmy Swaggart once said, “The Minister of Gospel is really the yardstick by which a State or Nation measures its morals.”
Resignations in polity are all about politics. Vladimir lenin, even, once had said, “There are no morals in politics; there is only expedience.”
What matters much now is how the ‘political expediency’ played on the part of the ruling BJD would pan out in the time to come in the State politics.
There seems to be some precedents prior to Nayak’s departure from the Ministry. Starting from last year’s infant deaths at the Cuttack Sishu Bhavan to this year’s proliferating jaundice, dengue in many districts, the Dana Majhi case, the untamed Japanese Encephalitis, and, finally, the SUM inferno, charges of nepotism also flied high.
It seems Atanu was eased out on moral grounds for the typical crippling of the State health apparatus, as suggested by his resignation statement, which indicates his alleged inability to run the Health Department.
Here lies the Himalayan trouble for Naveen Patnaik. The hungry Opposition has now got the ‘meat’ to go in for a final ‘hunt’ of his Government. It is this fear that has tied the CM’s hand to act on ‘screams’ of resignation of his Ministerial colleagues since a longer time.
If lack of Governance is the yardstick for the Health Minister’s resignation then Opposition would roar to ask the CM what is his opinion about the case of the Agriculture Department when around 135 farmers committed suicide only last year. Similarly, what about the Women and Child Welfare Department that blissfully presided over the Nagada malnutrition deaths or what about the Food and Civil Supplies Department that messed up implementation of the National Food Security Act where BJD members’ names tumbled out in the beneficiaries’ listsIJ And, above all, what about GumudumahaIJ
And, if the charges of misdemeanour were the yardstick then Opposition’s cry could get shriller as they would question the CM of his opinion on the alleged wheels-and-deals of law Minister Arun Sahoo with the now infamous Motilal Goud, the alleged role of his MPs, MlAs and Ministers in the chit fund scam.
Patnaik’s action this time seems to have put the BJD in a Catch-22 situation. Chest-thumping by the BJD during the coming; panchayat polls to show that the CM means business could come with a fierce counter from the Opposition, which with much glee hits the ground showcasing the CM’s lack of empathy for farmers, tribals and poor, who constitute a sizeable vote-bank in rural Odisha.
The escape route for Patnaik: Adopt the much famous Kamraj model, whereby he could ask his entire Cabinet to resign and pick new faces in a reshuffle to bolster his party’s image.