Odisha has assumed the proportion of a mysteriously unique State. The regional outfit, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) is gaining more and more in every successive election.
The Chief Minister is a strangely lovable guy. His aides and strategists have put him up on such a fantastically favourable footing that he cannot even taste defeat in near future. He came from the blue like a bolt. Odias had never seen him. They only new one Naveen Niwas near the aerodrome. Bijubabu, having been an avid flying master set up home at a location where he could smell and hear aircraft of all kinds.
No one is able to explain why he never presented publicly his youngest kid who would one day rise to be king for an indefinite period. Naveen never married to raise a family. He dedicated his life to intellectual pursuits. He roamed the world as a wondering odd ball but gathered some moss down the line. He loved the company of celebrities and wrote simple illustrative books on desert kingdoms, herbal plants and Indian courtly life, et cetera. Bijubabu had become a demigod when he breathed his last. He was a simple, daring magnanimous character who nurtured quite a vision for Odisha. His surviving followers knew too well that the Biju legacy would spell magic for a long time. They picked Naveen from no one knows where. Shy, reticent and by and large a bit aloof, he couldn’t say ‘No’. The BJD founding parents imagined they would have the best puppet in Naveen and rule the State to their whims and fancies. Naveen proved everyone wrong. He used best brains to learn the art and craft of administration, the usable dirt and filth of politics and the techniques of eliminating enemies and detractors of all hues.
Today, Naveen is not the king of Odisha; he is the unchallenged, nearly-invincible emperor, so do his bootlickers scream hoarse. All competitors gone, he is fairly relaxed on the political front because he knows just too well he is the only ‘star’ that emits light and attracts all creatures; the rest in the party are slaves and servants that require his lumens to see path. Naveen didn’t even care to learn Odia. He kept harping on the constantly prompted hype indicating some hazy ‘Biju dreams’. No one in the world until date knows what specific dreams Bijubabu kept dreaming except for economic development of the region generating employment for young people. He hated to beg for mercy. He never desired Odisha to be branded so poor as to plead with the Centre for a special status that ensures more money flowing in. All these hurting things are being sought by the Naveen administration without any sense of shame.
The fifteenth year of Naveen’s rule is proving lord Acton more correct than ever before. ‘Absolute power’ has ‘corrupted’ all authorities ‘absolutely’ and most unforgivably so. Democracy has been kicked to the dark corner. Bureaucracy is the form and spirit, which is sin. Consequently, the Babus have grown oversize and need cutting down to size. Only a handful of senior public officials call all shots and Naveen keeps putting his stamp without once trying to know what’s happening around. Most disturbingly, the ‘loner’ Chief Minister is reportedly ailing today, maybe due to bad diet. Babus are excited that they would take over the kingdom entirely if the emperor is out on a healing trip at least for months. That most politicians are law ignorant is an established fact, though morons in the crowd are dwindling in number, thanks to compulsory schooling of some kind. The Babus seem to have methodically forced him to remain content with one-liners, “We are looking into the matter” or “The law will take its own course.”
Naveen’s third term had kicked quite a few terrible controversies: Mining scam, coal allotment scam, ponzy scheme scam and, lastly, land grab scam. But the current fourth innings has witnessed explosive fire. What hurts the public is that Naveen, as boss, has not even hauled up any offender so far, let alone punish one exemplarily. The ‘discretionary quota’ authority that the Ministers have been enjoying has never been legally tenable. Yet, as if it had sanctity earlier, Naveen scrapped it in 2011 after the law Minister was found stealing. The giver Badrinath and the recipient Arukh went scot-free instead of landing in jail. The culture of looting the poor citizens’ land went on and eventually Kalpataru stole beyond capacity to get caught with son, wife and, maybe, others not identified so far. The Ghangapatna land is revenue property of a bushy growth type. It is not forestland. But stealing is perfectly established. The local villagers told in a TV interview that Kalptaru and Sanjay Dasburma have been directly supervising the development work over one hundred acres of precious public property. Kalpataru has not been ordered to tender Rajya Sabha membership and confess to crime. His son, also a lawmaker, is still sporting dark glasses and moving freely. Dasburma is making ‘potato’ appearances on TV and talking as if he is clinching all best deals to make the most desired tuber available plentifully in the State. That Naveen is not kicking out these elements along with the self-styled donor Ministers is causing grave public ire.
The ponzy firm AT Group is flipping its lid fairly well. The chief promoter, believably a respectable scheduled caste super-brain has entangled the immediate past Advocate General too. Serious activists were so suspicious of the local courts that they moved the Supreme Court and got the CBI on the scene. But truly, did the Crime Branch perform pretty well under the stewardship of Sharma, who virtually netted many of the ponzy schemers.
All the same, Naveen is losing dignity of being clean and above board because of letting rogue lawmakers escape. The Constitution has never sanctioned any authority to any member of the executive to dole out land. Good governance means plain reward to the good and exemplary punishment to the rogues. The land offenders are enemies of the State. Even, the Advocate General has not been able to tell the executive that land grabbing that has been occurring in the State is heinous economic offence. Good judges don’t even consider granting bail to such offenders. But alas, judges too have availed land unlawfully!
Most painfully, not a single big NGO where founders take a hefty salaries has come out with any statement of hurt or rage against the public offence. NGOs are expected to sensitise public and advocate in their favour to force the pillars of democracy to have Rule of law restored anyway. They don’t do their job and yet keep preaching sermons on transparency, accountability and empowering people by disseminating critical information. To prove the simple point, any loud NGO be picked to see how many founders have rushed to Jammu and Kashmir or how much money they have raised from own pockets to help the flood victims of India’s paradise. NGO founders pick other’s money; never do they part with their loot through multifarious ways and means.
The ‘clean’ CM is seemingly unaware of the grave developments relating to land grab; the Babus are busy taking advantage by never revealing the contents of the sacred Rule Book and the largely corrupt media is happy with dumbness. The courageous media reporters constitute only a meek, weak, helpless miniscule community. God save Odisha by having the thugs with authority thrown into dark prison cells where they can at least begin to repent with nonstop mosquito bites! Further, they will be able to differentiate between the ‘anopheles’, the ‘culex’ and the ‘aedis’ mosquitoes that infest all dark locations of Odisha.
(The writer is a core member of Transparency International, Odisha)