Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s politics of throwing the ball to the Centre’s court on almost all issues has, of late, begun boomeranging on him, exposing the chinks in his vulnerable armour.
At the drop of hat, Patnaik has always blamed the Union Government for all the problems faced by the State accusing the Centre of its “step-motherly attitude towards Odisha. And his indulgence in letter writing to various Union Ministers has, as political observers say, assumed comic proportions.
On a single day now, Patnaik has been cut to size by two Central Ministers on the basis of unassailable facts, with the Chief Minister having lost his face with no defence to offer.
Patnaik publicised a letter which he wrote to Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday demanding an increase of Rs500 crore in the funds under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) in view of the recent cyclone and floods in the State.
Virtually within no time, Ramesh shot back his reply to Patnaik, reminding him that he has been pleading for proposals from the Odisha Government since July this year to enhance the labour budget under the MNREGA for the State. But no officials from the State came to Delhi with such proposals, Ramesh pointed out, adding that meanwhile the Jharkhand Government has availed of such increased assistance as it submitted its proposals.
The other potshot for Patnaik on the day was the reply of Union law Minister Kapil Sibal to his letter on establishment of High Court benches in the western and southern regions of the State.
In what seems to have exposed Patnaik’s basic knowledge about the issue, Sibal wrote to him pointing out that in this matter the consent of the Chief Justice of the Odisha High Court is the first requirement, which, in fact, was ignored by the Chief Minister despite being pointed out by the Odisha High Court Bar Association.
Sibal further dug into the holes in Patnaik’s letter, stating that the Chief Minister has not mentioned the exact locations where he wants to set up the HC benches besides detailing the availability of the requisite infrastructure.
It is now further clear that Patnaik, in a desperate attempt to escape the heat of the lawyers’ strikes in the State’s western and southern regions demanding HC benches and divert their attention, wrote the letter to Sibal without knowing that his intention would be so exposed.