One fine morning, some BJP pundits imagined they had made a chance discovery of a blemished BJD poll funding, particularly involving Naveen Patnaik. The BJD brushed the whole issue as a cooked-up ‘malice story’ with the sole intention of maligning the invincible Patnaik, who has remained untarnished on every count despite attacks from opponents over the years. Erstwhile BJD frontline leaders including Ramakrishna Patnaik, Kamala Das, late Nalini Mahanty and more had tried to hit back on their dismissal in utter vain. Some ally BJP Ministers too were tossed out or humiliated for graft and personal misconduct as and when caught on the wrong foot. Even the mighty Pyari Mohapatra, now no more, was outcast for an alleged coup attempt. Most of the discarded characters had publicly roared ‘revenge in good time’ but had ended up biting dust. A few of them, subsequently, squeaked admittance of blunder and expressed unconditional allegiance to make re-entry. Only after the coalition failed in 2009, the BJP lions have been grunting about the imaginary betrayal. Interestingly, after the conclusive demolition of the Congress in 2014, the Modi-Amit Shah-controlled BJP leaders got so inspired that they declared complete takeover of the country soon by hook or by crook. Odisha, however, has remained virtually unaffected by the BJP storm only because Naveen is more trusted and more so the BJP is considered a communal party.
The ‘India Today’ talked of a ‘Naveen Mystique’ only weeks ago, saying deciphering the magic of Naveen is nearly impossible as the Odisha masses are in monumental awe of the reticent CM who hates to remain in limelight or engage in loud public rhetoric for all the good reasons. Naveen admirers say the detractors are insanely desperate to malign him on the flimsiest ground. They say Naveen is not an expert Odia orator. local language is of course a factor to keep the masses happy. But then, the people are not exactly anxious about what their leaders speak as long as the performance chart remains impressive. Odias still finds Naveen clean and highly credible. The ascending trend in vote count has been proving this theory ever since 2000. For that matter, Indira Gandhi was an alien in Karnataka when she won hands down from Chikmagalur in 1978. She couldn’t have spoken a word of Kannada even if she put in best efforts for years. Performance and public credibility score far too above spoken language. Naveen seems least bothered about the moves by local BJP leaders as they are bound to hang heads in shame for not having done any homework before making allegations about the blemished election funding and expense statements by BJD functionaries.
BJD leaders have lately brushed aside the allegations confidently and demanded apology from the BJP for making malicious charges. The BJP meanwhile has knocked at all doors -- the Election Commission, the ED and the High Court. The BJD says all the documents relating to election funding are on public domain. Even a semi-skilled auditor can dig into the documents and ferret out the truth.
BJP leaders alleged that Naveen was paid on two occasions, through cheques (441619, dated 30.03.2014) for Rs 10 lakh and second cheque (795036 dated 15.06.2014) for Rs 6,48,320. The first cheque is a ‘take cheque’ for Naveen. Interestingly, the quarter-baked BJP sleuths have not yet known that the second cheque was a giveback cheque to the party coffers. So, he kept only Rs 3,51,680 with him. The BJP mathematics wizards have failed to figure out this simple fact. later again, Naveen has availed a grant of money by way of reimbursement for his campaign tour expenses including helicopter hiring charges transferred through an RTGS transaction wherein the bank generates its own transfer reference number. The BJP intelligence wing has grabbed this bank’s own number to prove that a fraudulent transfer had occurred. The State Bank of India holding the accounts has made it formally clear that it’s no account holder’s number but a bank-generated operation code number.
Hence, the BJP masters making allegations do not have the capacity to understand basic banking procedures. The SBI did clarify on July 24 that the transactions are bonafide and legal carried out as normal banking transactions in accordance with the Negotiable Instruments Act. The BJP allegations regarding similar RTGS numbers related to transactions for Naveen and BJD MP Ramchandra Hansda, who is in jail in connection with ponzi scheme scam. Hansda was paid Rs 10 lakh by the BJD through a cheque bearing the number 441666 dated 08.05.2014, which has nothing to do with the cheque number of Naveen, who was paid vide SBI-generated number 441619.
A nine-digit number (538976288) in the BJD account which the BJP has described as ‘mysterious’ is only an SBI number picked from the Core Banking Solution (CBS) which is used in case of batch posting. This number does not have any significance and appears only while printing passbooks but not in statement of accounts. The BJP brains do not know all this, maybe because they do not believe in transparent money transactions lest the public should know the truth about massive fund raising by opaque methods.
Subash Mohapatra, who has filed a writ petition with the High Court, may only be a front. He has not done due diligence or homework before filing the petition. The Election Commission of India (ECI) has been notified to give counter when hearing may begin.
BJD Rajya Sabha member Pratap Deb has rightly said the BJP leaders should look at their own sources of income before levelling charges against others. Earlier, the BJP had moved the Income Tax Department and the ECI to dig into the make-believe poll funding frauds by BJD leaders. Incidentally, the average assets for 281 winning BJP candidates was Rs 11.59 crore .
The BJP is essentially a trader-friendly outfit. It has its own homegrown problems that brand it as a non-secular party. Faith fanatics like Bihar MP Hukumdev Narayan Yadav, while expressing concern over the killing of a worker of the BJP’s ideological mentor RSS in left-ruled Kerala, concluded shamelessly that a majority of Indian Muslims have descended from Hindu communities; so, they must show respect and worship Hindu gods and goddesses. Such a statement is inappropriate in the lawmaking House of a secular country. Origins of faith cannot be a critical factor for determining what one should like or dislike. For that matter, most Hindus too have converted to the faith from aboriginal tribes, nomadic Aryan and highly civilised Dravidian stock. Mr Yadav hit out at all opposition parties for targeting the Central Government over mob attacks. Some people are indulging in terror activities to defame the BJP Government.
People must know that the Narendra Modi Government was left red-faced in Rajya Sabha only recently when the Opposition managed to drop a crucial clause from the Constitutional Amendment Bill on the National Commission for Backward Classes just because most BJP MPs were absent during the proceedings. The dropping of Clause 3 under opposition pressure has implications beyond the Bill. All this shows how careless, casual, indifferent and unruly the NDA MPs, mostly from the BJP fold, are about issues of national interest. All this after Modi gave strict instructions to all his MPs to remain present at the parliamentary proceedings unless there was big medical urgency or unavoidable appointments of great significance! There is grapevine murmur now that strong disciplinary action would be taken against the absenting MPs, which is least likely because the ‘Achhe Din’ party bosses lack courage to haul up MPs no matter how grave their lapse. They promise happiness to the poor but work devotedly to bring immense joy to the wealthy. The real tribals will remain backward and deprived forever, except a few ‘no-more tribal’ figure like Jual Oram. No wonder, the average assets of the 281 BJP MPs staggers at 11.59 crore rupees. The BJP is unfailingly where big money smells. So, the millionaire MPs will go scot-free.
The BJP better refrain from false ‘money fraud’ talk to remain shielded from deadly allegations that might come up and be difficult to dispute.
(The writer is a core member of Transparency International, Odisha)