Indians today know two celebrity Dharmendras! The one from ludhiana is a movie star and recipient of Padma Bhusan apart from countless films that have amused Indians no end. This movie star has been a people’s representative by winning a lok Sabha seat from Bikaner in Rajasthan in 2004. The other Dharmendra is a shining BJP politician of Odisha who is now Petroleum Minister. A former MP, he found it tough to win a seat again from the home State. So, BJP bosses have favoured him with a Rajya Sabha berth from Bihar and also made him a Minister. Believably, he had done well as a party preacher. The BJP is now projecting him as the next Odisha Chief Minister by having Naveen Patnaik dismissed in 2019.
Historically, Naveen has smashed all records in remaining popular for so long and getting stronger by the day. Detractors have used all their tricks, both decent and wicked, but have failed. Masses have been convinced that Naveen is a saviour par excellence and no other known politician can ever match him on the integrity and do-good fronts. Not surprisingly, awards have kept falling into his lap nonstop over the years for being the best performing political administrator. The latest one bestowed by the magazine Outlook has made his admirers mad with frenzied joy and detractors livid with rage and bitterness. Dharmendra Pradhan is one who made futile attempts at belittling the Chief Minister by saying the Outlook award has been bought with money, meaning anybody can grab a big award by sponsoring ads in magazines and newspapers. This shows Pradhan in absolute bad light. He went further to say ‘Naveen is showing off a dim lantern when the sunshine is so bright all around by alluding to a grossly-misplaced Odia proverb.
Naveen has remained cool over the award, as always. The Utkal Express accident killing many and injuring countless passengers had shaken up Naveen. So, he instructed his officials sternly to ensure no revelry or celebration take place. But the frenzied admirers (sycophants inclusive) defied his order and thronged the airport to hail him as hero. Helpless about the public madness, he only kept mum with a grim face and said briefly that the award was being dedicated to the ordinary citizens who have kept him in power.
The online survey conducted by the Outlook placed Naveen along with five other CMs Nitish Kumar (Bihar), Mamata Banerjee (West Bengal), Devendra Fadnavis (Maharashtra), Manik SarkaRs r (Tripura) and Siddaramaiah (Karnataka) in the nominations for the coveted award.
Naveen is of course an enigma. The best of analysts have failed to evaluate him accurately. But as experts would know, his strength lies in his silence and his indifference to praise and blame of any kind. He had backed Sangma for President against Pranab Mukherjee. But when Pranab won, he took great pride in complimenting him with unconditional support of his administration on every moral and Constitutional front. Decency comes from basic culture at home and immediate surroundings. Dharmendra has not felt great about his State’s Chief Minister being recognised as the best. But his party celebrated Arun Jaitley winning a prize.
It may be recalled that more than twenty years ago, the daily Telegraph, in its Sunday supplement, had, for the first time in India, introduced Naveen as the celebrity of the week. The picture used then showed Naveen as of today: kurta-pyjamas and Kolhapuri chapples. The very miniscule number of people that read the magazine then got to know Bijubabu’s younger son for the first time and that the legend’s Bhubaneswar house was named after him.
The supplement had adequately mentioned about Naveen’s high-society status and his keen interests in painting apart from the serious academic pursuits resulting in authorship of three highly-acclaimed books. ‘A Second Paradise’ on Indian countryside life as was prevalent during the 1590-1947 period.
The fascinating text brings fresh meaning to an incredible visual record of a lost and exotic world. ‘A Desert Kingdom’ is a vivid narration of the beautiful people of Bikaner, particularly the princely courts of India during the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries and shares paintings from each period. ‘The Garden of life’ introduces the healing plants of India. A re-examination of the discoveries made by India's greatest sages thousands of years ago is divided into five sections, Sacred, Medicinal, Culinary, Cosmetic, and Aromatic, and features discussion of the applications of seventy plants.
Only recently, despite provocations by eminent writers, he refused to commit himself to writing a book on ‘how to win elections’.
Naveen Patnaik is also not just interested in writing an autobiography as he feels it would not amuse anyone at all. “I will rather write nonfiction,” he had said emphatically in reply to a query at a public function sometime ago.
When asked to reveal the secret of his enigmatically successful personality, Naveen would say only good governance was the key to his government's survival for so long. The soft, silent, mystical politician says he preferred politics because it was an effective tool for transforming people’s lives through real good governance, which means absolute transparency and public accountability exist in the highest measure. Naveen is unhappy that political leaders do not spend even a little time in reading to gather knowledge. For this reason alone, he trusts his knowledgeable and willing-to-achieve administrators that have entered the domain through rigorous exercises.
Dharmendra says, “Magazine awards are available to anyone who gives big advertisement money to publications.” The ‘Outlook Speakout’ award was determined on the basis of ordinary people’s online voting across the country, which Pradhan may not know. Arun Jaitley, his own senior colleague, got an award too.
Jaitley in control of much bigger resources, may have paid an enormous amount of money to the Outlook if what Dharmendra’ claims is true.
Dharmendra entered into the realm of politics as a member of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad. Soon, he became national secretary of ABVP and president of the Yuva Morcha. Defying the secular spirit of the great country, he participated in all campaigns related to reservations on the basis of religion. He should be judged against what Jaipal Reddy achieved as Petroleum Minister during the UPA regime vis-a-vis Mukesh Ambani. Dharmendra may not know this dark part of history of the Petroleum Ministry.
Dharmendra Pradhan would do well seeking some tips from Dharmendra the movie star to improving his sense of humility so that he does not fail again to see the angel ingredients in others and realise that awards from credible agencies are never bought, only earned. Arun Jaitley, surely, would dispel his doubts better.
(The writer is a core member of Transparency International, Odisha)