At the 20th BJD anniversary celebration, Naveen Patnaik exhorted party leaders to follow one single path religiously: ‘Remain simple in look and conduct; serve the poor with utmost humility’. That will play magic in the minds of the masses; their respect for the BJD will soar and they will want the party back in service again and again. Very interestingly, the Chief Minister did not utter one word with a political tinge.
All that he said was about behaviour change. He has not changed his original trademark ‘Kurta-pyajama and chappal’ dress code once in public view, despite having been a celebrity himself on numerous counts. He has been the preferred local companion to Jacqueline Kennedy, the Beatles and more dignitaries from abroad for decades only because of his understanding of cultures and deep knowledge in human behaviour.
Odisha people hardly know that his three books published by international houses have been bestsellers because of extreme readability and quality of contents.
‘The Desert Kingdom’, ‘The Second Paradise’ and ‘The Garden of life’ are great works of art as well. Naveen is also a great painter with skills to overshadow many known ones. Moreover, he is least known as a patriot on a least-noticed front. He has invariably used a car specifically made by an Indian company.
He hasn’t changed his Maruti-Suzuki vehicle once when foolish party leaders have sported Pajero and got into trouble. Similarly, the ones that have brazenly flaunted wealth disproportionate to known sources of income have attracted public hatred.
Even those politicians who have fed thousands of guests at family weddings have caused immense public ire. Further, people have kept track of those lowly leaders whose wealth has swollen after being in power politics. Moreover, the devilish ones whose children have made fortunes without much input are also under close public scanner.
Naveen has sent the signal in time that no arrogant fellow with visible ill-gotten wealth shall have a peaceful time from now on.
Not surprisingly, the cool guy that he is to criticism, Naveen made no mention of any political worry. He made no remark of political opponents or made any reference to electoral battles and the gravely unacceptable blemishes of opposition party leaders. He only told such things as would restore order to own house.
It is known that despite the BJP’s best efforts, it couldn’t make much dent in the recent local elections barring sporadic victory to it. local poll results do not indicate the trend of general elections as marked in history over a long period of time.
The mass mood does swing differently when a fierce battle to choose big lawmakers is fought. let a critical observation be made here: the BJD was indeed created by capitalising the Biju legacy in 1997. But by 2009, during the massive second victory, young new voters had become highly enamoured by Naveen and so voted for him. Biju Patnaik had virtually become a mere big name for them.
They had convinced themselves that Naveen is a saviour par excellence who demolishes all evil forces in the political arena without mercy. Further, he is a single person without any desire for amassing wealth to leave behind for anyone. The parental house and the saving in the late illustrious father’s account are enough for him to lead a dignified and peaceful life.
Some detractors claim that Naveen is indifferent to what’s happening to the State; he doesn’t give a damn to people. These allegations have put countless researchers on the job of trying to figure him out. The findings are all out: Naveen is keen that Odisha is soon declared less poor than many of the so-called advanced States like Gujarat, which is projected as a super model for top grade development under the BJP.
What’s intriguing now is the fact that Odisha figures better as reported by the Central scrutiny agencies. As per the Human Development Index, Odisha scores much better than Gujarat on critical domains of poverty alleviation, child mortality reduction and many other ‘quality of life’ issues.
While the Congress has been on the downslide for several years, the verdict was particularly galling for the BJP, which has been making concerted efforts to dent Naveen’s popularity and emerge as the alternate political force in Odisha, though with little success.
The BJP had first hoped to capture Odisha in 2014 when the ‘Modi wave’ swept the country. Instead, it received a rude shock when the Modi juggernaut was effectively halted by Naveen.
The BJP was again disappointed when it failed to dislodge Naveen from the Numero Uno position in the last civic polls despite PM Narendra Modi making a ‘special day trip’ to the State before the elections.
Odisha, as it turned out, remained unimpressed with Modi. The BJD won an absolute majority in all eight municipal bodies while the BJP just about registered a blip on the electoral map.
Multiple scandals varieties have emerged in Odisha. But Naveen remains absolutely untainted. Ever since the BJP made gains here and there, its canny president Amit Shah has been strategising like mad to enter Odisha.
But the east-coast State remains an unchartered territory for the saffron outfit. No wonder, great media and public scrutiny agencies have crowned Naveen the enigmatic master among all political administrators being the highest-rated Chief Minister of times. The Marxists lasted long in West Bengal but with hiccups and diminishing popularity. The southern States with their dominant regional parties have voted for this outfit once and that for the next.
Even the RJD, SP, BSP of the north and the Shiv Sena in the west have failed to remain strong after one term. They keep coming and going like nomads.
The BJP is keen to shrug off this tag and become a pan-India party. It has just confounded Assam. But West Bengal is proving to be difficult and Odisha impossible.
It has not been able to shake off the four-term Chief Minister’s total grip over Odisha even though it grabbed a 27% vote share in last general elections.
Naveen Patnaik’s uninterrupted winning streak in defiance of anti-incumbency has baffled his opponents. No scam or scandal directly involving his Government has emerged over the years. His personal credibility has become even shinier than before.
His appeal and charisma, both among the rural poor and the growing middleclass, have remained unshakeable. Desperate to weaken the invincible BJD, the BJP had a silly trick saying Naveen’s health is failing and so the BJD is sinking fast.
On his part, the author-turned-politician appeared oblivious to this chatter about his so-called failing health. Naveen has remained happily ensconced in his State ever since he abandoned his jet-setting lifestyle of fraternising with the likes of Mick Jagger and Jacqueline Kennedy to take on his father’s political legacy in 1997.
The BJD under his stewardship will continue as an invincible force as long as Naveen enjoys heading it. He has surpassed his legendary father in being considered a ‘true friend’ of the poor and the middleclass primarily for dealing with the wicked and the corrupt in a ruthless manner. Such realise drama was never witnessed before.
Any crook from amongst the ruling community, if identified as unethical or corrupt, has been hacked and tossed into oblivion, an act people have enjoyed the most.
For somebody who had studiously shunned politics and did not speak Odia, Naveen took to his new life like a duck to water.
He was embraced by the people of Odisha as “Biju’s son” but has since created his own space over the 20 years he has been in public domain. Today the BJD is Naveen and Naveen the BJD. They say even statues of stone would win elections if fielded as BJD candidates; and stalwarts from other big parties are likely to bite dust if not tremendously big in stature or willing to splurge money like mad. So, many detractors within the party have raised their evil voices and faced dire consequences.
Even the colossally clever and powerful Pyari Mohapatra had slugged so hard to upset the Naveen administration in vain. He eventually burnt himself out before his death.
But Naveen never spoke a word against him. Naveen had gone to pay tributes at Pyari’s funeral and sing songs in his praise for having helped shape up the party.
Critical observers forecast Bijay Mohapatra and Dilip Ray may return to the BJD fold by promising unconditional allegiance to old-time friend Naveen, who may find the seasoned performers useful now.