Much water has flown down the Mahanadi. Transition of Naveen Patnaik has been complete.
When Patnaik ventured into his first reelection after completing the first five-year term, he was seen as a leader, who is a dealer of hope. Now, when he is making a voyage for his fourth reelection in 2019, he has emerged more as a ‘political’ leader. Patnaik’s exhortation to his BJD members on Sunday spells the politician-gripping in him.
What is evident of the Chief Minister now emerging a more politician-like is the raking up of the Polavaram issue, already used umpteen times in elections, to its hilt by the BJD against the BJP this time, which underlines what John F Kennedy once had said about politics and politicians. Kennedy said, “Politics is like football. If you see daylight, go through the hole.”
And Patnaik did exactly that when the Modi-led Government at the Centre was emerging as a challenger to his reign and when it accorded national status to the Polavaram project. Though the project was announced in 2013-14, Patnaik pounced aggressively on the BJP as anti-Odisha.
In an addendum, the piloting of the Mahanadi imbroglio now even though the issue has been simmering for 40 long years, as the Water Resources Department data show, Patnaik portrayed the popular notion on politics, which says, “Being in politics is like being a football coach. You have to be smart enough to understand the game and dumb enough to think it’s important.” The result: He simply trims all routes, as evidenced in his reply to the Assembly debate, which led to any rival party to have any bite on the cake.
Moreover, former American Vice-President Hubert Humphrey once remarked. “We believe to err is human. To blame it on someone else is politics.”
And Patnaik when on Sunday quite aggressively blamed ‘Central negligence’ evolving as a bump to his development chariot, puts the gaze on his evolving politician bone.
However, what surprised political watchers is Patnaik’s priority when he asked party cadres to go every rural home during the upcoming annual political ritual of BJD, Jan Sampark Yatra, explaining ‘Central negligence’ and Odisha’s Bikas (exactly in this order). In politics, words and its order count much when it comes from the party boss. The other side of this ‘words-disorder’ story could be Patnaik is seemingly unsure of his development story strong enough to propel his party to the goalpost in coming elections. Therefore, his stress has been first on ‘Central negligence’ vis-a-vis the BJD’s worksheet.
However for emerging political leaders, a man of eminence RA
Butler has a cautionary counsel to offer. He warned, “In politics, you must always keep running with the pack. The moment that you falter and they sense that you are injured, the rest will turn on you like wolves.”