During the national executive meeting of the BJP in Bhubaneswar, the key attraction in the crowd of dignitaries next to Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the new UP Chief Minister Yogi Aditya Nath.
The seer-turned-politician, with his ochre attire and a yogi-like demeanour, attracted many an eyeball during the BJP’s star-studded show. He was most sought-after as people were curious about how a sanyasi, who should be least interested in mundane affairs, was faring as a CM.
None but Modi himself is an answer to the Adityanath craze. The charisma of Modi who brought unexpected success for the BJP as a PM nominee before the 2014 general elections across the country was something none was aware of. The former CM of Gujarat was fielded by the BJP out of the blue and the rest was history. Modi, much to the chagrin of the Congress, swept the polls for the party by ushering in a tsunami.
Modi represents a persona and leadership style which was diametrically opposite to that of his predecessor Manmohan Singh. While Singh looked acting like a bureaucrat much detached from the mass and working strictly according to the rule book, less talking in the language of the mass, hardly energetic and wearing a lively smile in face, Modi offered himself to be different choice. He not only has had a magic in his oratory, his assent was typical that took him close to the mass. He mingled with the mass, claimed to be a leader of the poor and declared that he was not a pradhan mantri but a pradhan seveak after he became the PM.
UPA-led Congress had been graft-ridden and monotonous in style, while Modi brought a hope for something different from the conventional and the status quo. Now, Adityanath presents a leadership which is even more promising than Modi. The people are eager and curious about him as to how he brings order, peace and prosperity in the State by virtue of his self-discipline and high order wisdom as an ascetic.
In fact, yogis have got a new craze for the people in India. Baba Ramdev as a Yoga Guru has got so much credibility that people are mad after his Patanjali products with expectation of everything pure and healthy.
The 17 years old Naveen Patnaik Government has become too hackneyed. A situation has arisen when people are truly dying for something fresh and new. His dissociation from the mass, two-liner response in English and excess dependence on bureaucrats have set a trend of governance what people are fed up with. A big chunk of his Ministers and officers are egoistic, corrupt and selfish. Probably, for this CM Patnaik is trying change his style these days.
Postscript: Take the example of the Kamakhyanagar Tehsildar who grabbed media space for all the wrong reasons allegedly for his roadside ‘dadagiri’. He picked up a fight with locals at a village near Dhenkanal after he faced some inconveniences while driving his vehicle as cattle came up on road.
losing his temper, the Tehsildar allegedly assaulted the man tending the cattle. He did not care a hoot for the locals who opposed his rowdiness. The grassroots level official’s attitude sums up why Patnaik’s administration is fraying at the seams by the day.