The cocktail of relief and politics has been quite an intoxicating brew for the ruling and Opposition leaders even as the storm, flood and rain hit victims in the north and south parts of the State are still struggling hard to normalise their lives.
Since elections are nearing, the serial calamities have been a rallying point for the political leaders to turn the tide in their favour, be it through a real sense of compassion for the victims or pretention of having it. Invariably, the aim to politicise relief is not to ease the difficulties and sufferings of the victims but to play a hit-and-run game so that the party that gets the maximum bruises exhausts its patience and grit to stand out.
To begin with, while the Congress stalwarts, prominent being Union Minister Srikant Jena and PCC chief Jayadev Jena, hit out at the BJD Government at all the places they visited on grounds of its failure not to utilise to the maximum extent possible the Central funds and manpower in the ongoing relief operation, Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Surjya Narayan Patro rebuffed the Centre for having not spent a sing pie so far for the post Phailin and flood relief and restoration works in the State clearly with a motto to bring home the point that State Congress leaders were all bluffing and that the Central Government led by the Congress party does not have an iota of concern for the plight of the Odisha people. Several other demagogues in the BJD cabinet like Panchayati Raj Minister Kalpataru Das, Government Chief Whip Pravat Tripathy and Health Minister Damodar Rout among others have hardly relented in their shrilling anti-Centre bash.
The discrimination of the Centre to the State right from according Odisha the special category status to standing by the State in the hour of the catastrophes has been their main focus with the underlying message, loud and clear, that it is the BJD which is always with the State people and in terms of its love and patriotism (not parochialism), the regional party has few parallels.
Political chicanery is at its best so far as BJP leaders’ visits and attacks on the Government are concerned. Not being able to carve out much of a standing for itself in the just concluded UlB polls, with its dismal performance casting a shadow over its prospect in the general elections in 2014, the party under the vanguard of a new president and his coterie of people has plunged into the relief politics with much calibration but its approach seems to be lacking a unity of focus and hence the strength to have any effect on a well-trenched party in power.
The BJP leaders are paying individual visits to the Phailin and flood affected areas and making their comments and observations. Whether it is Dharmendra Pradhan, Biswabhusan Harichandan, Bijaya Mohapatra, or the State party chief KV Singh Deo, each seems to be launching attacks against the State and Central Governments in his own way, which have given a massage that the party is less important than its leaders. Other parties like CPM, CPI and Samrudhha Odisha etc too have been registering their protests against the relief mess but these have been occasional outbursts. OJM has very cunningly distanced itself from the game.
The State Government no doubt deserves praise for handling the Phailin with a more planed preparedness unlike the one during the Super Cyclone time. However, in dealing with the flood and rain that struck the State in close succession, the Government has failed.
There have been loot in relief materials and corruption in its distribution, while the restoration works have run into a mess. When you are helping people in distress, all you need is a heart to feel their pain and suffering. If you eye for a benefit in turn from the people you give succor, your mission will certainly miss the mark.
On the other hand, those who unnecessarily shed crocodile’s tears over the predicament of the people too lose the opportunity to endear them with anybody.