There was a hic-up last week because of the vagaries of the inclement weather. So in one further absence of a week, one has to get back to regularity in this column.
The Kamraj Plan of the 1960s was re-enacted in Odisha with significant content modification. The Kamraj Plan had affected Biju Patnaik. The reverse Kamraj Plan is authored by his son Naveen. In the original Kamraj Plan, it was the experienced and successful holding positions of power were called upon to go and work for party organisation. The younger elements got a chance to hold offices and enjoyed power. The experiment in Odisha is just the reverse. Experience has been the dominant factor in becoming a Minister. Younger elements in the party get the signal of being more tuned towards organisation. With the majority of voters being in the category of 18 to 40 years of age, the student voter and the post-student hood voter will have to be dealt with in a different manner. The model the BJD supremo has conceived of calls for a linkage between the party organisational leadership and the rank and file of the party from the booth level onwards.
The change of guards has been very smooth and ceremonial. The odd things stand out, and it was noticed that the persons, who had to give up the Ministerial berths, did not come to the swearing-in ceremony. MlAs, who had hoped to get a berth in the Council of Ministers, when unsuccessful, stayed away from the swearing-in ceremony. A large sector of western Odisha and tribal Odisha goes unrepresented, and in some of them there are effective and well-grounded legislators. Friends and supporters of the MlAs from Sambalpur Dr Raseswari Panigrahi and those of the tribal leader Mangala Kisan have openly protested against their leaders being left out. Public demonstrations and resentments have come to the forefront. Eighteen out of the 30 districts have gone unrepresented in the Council of Ministers. In three districts, i.e., Jharsuguda, Deogarh and Nuapada, the BJD has no MlA. The effective representation, therefore, comes down to 15 districts. Fifty per cent is totally unrepresented in an otherwise bulky Ministry. There would be an inherent imbalance in the representative character of the Council of Ministers in geographical terms. Some Ministers have turned highly emotional with tears rolling down their eyes. The 15 districts having no Ministers include Koraput, Kalahandi, Rayagada, Malkangiri, Kandhamal, Balangir, Gajapati, Boudh, Kendrapada, Jajpur, Angul, Sambalpur, Sundargarh, Mayurbhanj and Nayagarh. The highest density of Ministership goes to Ganjam district within which lies the Chief Minister’s constituency. There are, however, two Ministers from each of the districts, i.e., Puri, Bhadrak, Bargarh, Cuttack, Khordha and Dhenkanal. Similarly, one Minister each from Subarnapur, Jagatsinghpur, Keonjhar, Nabarangpur and Baleswar districts,
Two former Ministers continue to have the same portfolios; they are Snehangini Churia and Ashok Chandra Panda. Viewed from another angle, there are, however, 20 Ministers belonging to 12 districts. In effective terms, 18 districts do not have any representation in the Council of Ministers. But the finesse with which the entire exercise is carried out deserves to be acknowledged.
On the chessboard of politics, the pawns of the party can be moved around. A party enjoying 117 seats in the 147-member Assembly is entitled to have its own hic-ups after the lessons from the panchayat elections and in preparation for the eventuality of the 2019 general elections. It would have been more meaningful and more conducive to cohesive functioning if those who forego Ministership or could not make it to a Ministerial berth are dispassionate enough not to be away from the swearing-in ceremony. But the thrust that the BJD supremo is giving to the line of command in the party makes one wait and watch. The moments of the youths require their agenda in the social fabric at the ground level. A party with a majority such as the present one has a duty to translate the situation in the society for a better one. The trend towards some amount of openness in Government is very refreshing. But the worrisome catch lies elsewhere. The Government is essentially still run by the civil servants. The political executive is not playing its full role in our State over a long period of time. The specific assignment to some former Ministers of the student and youth fronts is a significant move. Having a hold on and consolidating that hold on the youth power may be politically advantageous. But if we tend to corrupt the youth power by misutilising in their nascent days, then we will have to face rotten results when the crop comes. This is a serious affair concerning different facets of our society. The utilisation of the youth power is a very vital issue in the context of our social structure. With the youths we are dealing with molten lava and plenty of enthusiasm. This potential power will determine the quality of life in the next generation. The BJD has to come out with some new objectives and ideals apart from its traditional focus on regional matters and its equi-distantism from the Congress and the BJP and its chronic requirement for blaming the Union Government for many of the maladies the local society has to face.
The architects in the party, who are now reaching out to the youth power must have a wider vision including the projection for a vibrant Odisha. But alas, in the event the expected happens and there is misutilisation and misdirection of the youth power, we will ruin the quality of life in a whole new generation. Involvement of the youths at the grassroots level, essential structural reforms and a more participatory involvement in governance will go a long way in regeneration of the youths and the leadership of the time.
It is lack of bonding which is making socioeconomic progress not effective and fruitful. There is to be adequate connectivity between the educational curriculum of a younger person with the requirements of his involvement in the local community. The system absorbs but does not alter the system. There has been overpowering involvement and intervention, sometimes intrusion. Given a normal situation, it is but natural to expect an increasingly improved society to be available to the mankind. But to bring about an equilibrium, we can absorb the evolving and emerging requirements. This involves every element of the social fabric to interact and further weed out. It calls for an involvement by all, which cannot be tackled in isolation. Surely, this concerns us all!
(The writer, a Senior Advocate, is a former All India Service officer, a former diplomat, a former editor, a former President of Orissa High Court Bar Association and a former Advocate General of Odisha. jayantdas@hotmail.com)