There was big news about a 100-year old New York woman called Eleanor Cunningham who overshadowed George Herbert Walker Bush, the 41st President of the US in a daredevil act of skydiving. This father Bush (son George Walker Bush also President later) had held the title of being the oldest skydiving hero for having jumped off a flying plane on his 90th birthday.
Bush had demolished the Iraqis after the Kuwait takeover by the former and further caused the disintegration of the mighty Soviet empire by first coaxing the Baltic States of Estonia latvia, lithuania to secede without fear. During his tenure, the Soviet Scud missiles suffered the worst reputation as the American ‘Patriot’ simply vaporised the Soviet arsenal as if in a ‘sword and a canon’ duel during the Middle East war.
The point why the American skydivers are at the back of the mind is because the legendary Biju Patnaik of India was a sky-loving daredevil. If he had lived to this day, he would have smashed the American records by not only skydiving ordinarily but may have read a small booklet and signed a few office documents during the exciting fall.
He loved planes, the skies and a great deal of other adventures. His dearest son Naveen, never once presented to the world by him until the junior materialised after his death, is not a physical adventurer. He is mentally a couple of million times more potent than the father in designing mechanisms of keeping cool and getting anything done through intellectually sharp slaves. He can create a hundred thousand centenarian skydivers if he wished and steal all records by having people and the works appropriately in place.
Today Naveen has established such a most wonderful administrative set-up in Odisha that ‘consensus’ is a strange expression amid the party members. The working committee of the BJD is a mere puppet show performer. When recently, senior BJD MlA Pravat Tripathy got nabbed by the CBI on some ponzy scheme complicity, not a soul, no matter how big or powerful, uttered a word of reaction for fear of the supremo who suspended the legislator from the party after arrest without consulting anyone else.
Bhartruhari Mahtab, who is considered a most fortunate guy for taking the perfect step at the right time, has been representing the prestigious Cuttack constituency as MP, mustered some courage to make public his displeasure about Naveen’s ruthless step in the Pravat suspension issue.
Naveen never uttered a word. But sycophants raised hell that the end of Bhartruhari is come! Rattled like a rabbit, the MP did such a U-turn on his own respectable comments as even illiterate coolies and street workers are heaping shame on him for being a coward. Mahtab lost no time to begin ranting that Naveen was superbly right but the media misquoted him. He told blatant lies to please the supremo by screeching aloud severally that Naveen is infallible.
Around this time, some lightheaded BJD creatures would say Naveen must fly a plane to be pushed from behind to fall in a classical skydive to uphold the culture of physical daredevilry that his late father kept displaying. And perhaps that single safe act would bring him down to reason and the dictatorial misdemeanours would end with that, thereby restoring democracy in the party’s decision-making processes. More so because the Bush junior who also occupied the US President’s chair is nearly Naveen’s age!
The latest horror caused by the executive in Odisha is allowing public ‘alcohol drinking’ between 12 noon and 12 midnight. That’s a most unwelcome decision which will destroy the youths the most. They say the permission is only for five big cities with metro culture; but for sure the disease will be infected into smaller urban centres very slyly to make easy revenue. Besides, it is an undeniable fact that no city of Odisha has any ‘metro character’ except a chaotic population if that is an essential metro character at all. The cities have no enforcement outfit to gauge alcohol fumes with breath analysers or noise levels with decibel meters. All that they have is boards and sign-ages indicating traffic humps and rumblers most of which instead of discouraging high speed of vehicles, damage them by being too badly rigid and high. Furthermore, the firefighting teams until recently would appear hours after being alerted to pull down the last remnants of the gutted property.
No wonder, the unskilled, untrained firefighters would end up peeping only from outside and then screaming for help themselves, the moment any sophisticated auto-rising ladder-platform systems carrying them gained height to rescue trapped people, or else, would faint out of acrophobia (fear of height). Fortunately though, the fire services force under a dynamic leader now are much fitter than ever before and adept at rescuing people from any disaster. No big city of Odisha can claim to be even a mini metro.
So, the on-shop liquor outlets must not run for the odd 12 hours which will promote mugging, snatching and highway robbery by errant youths without much formal scope of making money. The NHRC has already directed the State authorities to have all alcohol vending outlets to be closed if the proximity is less than 500 meters to any public place including educational institution, hospital or even a petrol pump. The dream of Mahatma Gandhi is being shattered. Nowhere in the world, irrespective of the nature of governance, public sale of alcohol is considered acceptable if the nation state is branded ‘poor’ by international parameters. Odisha is known for its perpetual poverty.
All this is because of bad governance. Naveen Patnaik has to wake up a shade brighter to realise that monopoly status has degenerated most of the BJD systems and members beyond repair. He has the scope to do any noble thing because the gullible people of Odisha believe he is demigod. If Eleanor Cunningham can perform skydives at 100, he can do any wonder with the miraculously favourable circumstances which have developed around him over the years in the absence of any impediment. The thinking people of Odisha wish to see him perform a political ‘Eleanor Cunningham’ for he is only 68 or so like the younger Bush.
Modi is just beginning to do the right things after dejecting the Indians across the globe. His manifesto commitments may not ever come true, but that he inducted a proven saint has relieved the country folks a great deal. Manohar Parrikar, the IITian Goa Chief Minister known for his truly austere living style and straightforward ways of running a State made him comparable with Jose Mosuca, President of Uruguay. The latin American head of state donates his entire salary among the poor, lives in a ramshackle of a farmhouse inherited by wife who cooks food and washes clothes everyday without help of machines. They grow grains and vegetables on their humble property for a living and Mosuca rides his 30-year-old Vespa scooter which has never betrayed him.
Parrikar is in the same genre as Jose, loves remaining low profile. Modi has made him Defence Minister for saving incalculable sums of money paid in bribes to all decision makers across the hierarchies in defence equipment deals.
The Tatra truck, HDW submarine and Westland helicopter import affairs, like the Bofors gun deal, are all soaked in bribe, treachery and conspiracy against the nation. Antony of the UPA was clean, but his regime was corrupt. Parrikar who mingles in the crowd is worshipped as god in Goa. Hopefully, he will never fail to fix the thugs robbing the nation in defence deals. The defence purchase constitutes the biggest international trade in a developing nation like India. Parrikar is expected to facilitate indigenous manufacture of defence equipments and make money by export. We have the brains, most of the raw materials and the infrastructure except the political will, obviously for vested interests.
Very interestingly, the social media networks have come up with names holding offshore black money account. Chidambaram, Sharad Pawar, lalu Yadav and members of the Gandhi family figure prominently with incalculable sums of money. Subramanian Swamy while visiting Odisha recently said assertively, “All money from 20 million accounts in more than 100 tax havens would be recovered. May his prophecy come true! Modi would then remain PM for life.
(The writer is a core member of Transparency International, Odisha)