Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik made his political bones evident to the Opposition in Malkangiri when he swiftly rolled out doles to the victims of Japanese Encephalitis (JE) there en route his pre-panchayat election whirlwind tours across the State and played to the hilt the famous jab that ‘your sticks and stones (vehement resistance) would not break my bones’.
Interestingly, when the Opposition were making a hullabaloo over Patnaik’s missing cameo role in the JE epicentre when the epidemic was at its peak, the CM was sitting pretty as he apparently was busy in following an analysis of ‘Politics’ by eminent British political theorist Bernard Crick that “Politics are, as it were, the marketplace and the price mechanism of all social demands - though there is no guarantee that a just price will be struck; and there is nothing spontaneous about politics- it depends on deliberate and continuous activity.”
A postmortem of Crick’s famous analysis of ‘Politics’ brings the CM’s mature statecraft to the fore as his not paying a visit to Malkangiri then and doing so now (when panchayat polls are looming around) is a deliberate and continuous evolving political strategy, and his ‘doles’ though are not a ‘just price’ to the loss of precious lives but it displayed a sound knack of politics as Patnaik has addressed to the ‘social demands’ for the realm of political optics with an ex-gratia of Rs 3 lakh and other tangible gift packs (pucca house).
Since, like politicians, public too has a short memory, the CM has also been waiting strategically for the opportune time to strike the iron when it is red hot and in one arrow hit bang on two targets, the public mind space and opposition psyche. The BJD supremo, thus, has dropped this ‘dole thud’ to neutralise the Opposition arsenal during the upcoming polls in the district.
Significantly, from Mahanadi to Malkangiri, :Patnaik’s political colours have come to the fore more often in contrast to signs of his statesman-like attitude in his earlier years of reign, though Patnaik’s political bone propped up in 2009 when he snapped ties with the BJP. Moreover, the BJD’s ‘equidistance’ political algorithm is only a nuanced approach to real politick.
Not only Patnaik keeps his card close to chest but also plays it well. For instance, when PM Modi took the BJP baton in Odisha with his scathing jab of ‘Government in slumber’ on the BJD this year only, from the podium of a well-planned ‘Make in Odisha’ event, Patnaik made BJP big guns and heavyweight Ministers to sing paeans of his Government’s mega achievements. The event was so chosen that no Central Minister could turn antagonist as the event was a launch pad for prosperity of the State of Odisha.
However, the side-effect of a tilt to more politicking on the citizenry would exactly be what a man of eminence like James F Clarke once had said, “Politicians think of next elections; statesmen think of next generation”.
The result: Epidemics, poverty and joblessness keep on reaping a good harvest in the State affecting the whole generation right from child to youth and old alike.