Naveen Patnaik (74) completed 20 years as the chief minister of Odisha on March 5. The day also happened to be the birthday of his late father Biju Patnaik.
Being the longest serving chief minister is one among the many records he has set. The Biju Janta Dal (BJD) supremo is perhaps the only second generation politician in the country who hasn't been groomed by the family for a career in politics. The senior Patnaik, who became the chief minister of Odisha twice, never entertained the thought of any of his family members entering politics. He also kept away from national politics.
It was only after the demise of Biju Patnaik in 1997 that his party colleagues in the then Janata Dal chose his younger son, Naveen Patnaik, a writer in English who did even know Odia well, to contest the byelection from his father's Lok Sabha seat. He later broke away from Janata Dal to form a regional party named after his father, along with the latter's loyalists, and went on to win all the general elections in the state, first in alliance with BJP, and later on its own since 2009.
He was hardly affected by the political waves that swept India, except in 2019 when an aggressive Narendra Modi and the BJP went all out to turn India saffron. After he began his fifth term as the chief minister, he formed a truce with the BJP, helping the latter to get its candidate elected to the Rajya Sabha. PM Modi returned the favour when the BJD organised a week-long celebration to observe 104th birth anniversary of Biju Patnaik when the Naveen Patnaik government turned 20, by paying tribute to the senior Patnaik.
Quoting an intelligence bureau report of 1945 about Biju Patnaik, an ace pilot, flying Dr Ram Manohar Lohia from Delhi to Kolkota when the latter was underground, the prime minister tweeted, “Remembering Biju babu on his Jayanti. This document from the pages of history (dated 1945) gives glimpse of his courage (flying Dr. Lohia,who was then underground) and excellence. Biju babu worked tirelessly for India’s progress and pioneered the development of Odisha.”
The legacy
Naveen Patnaik formed the BJD inspired by the ideologies of his late father, a pilot-turned-freedom fighter who became an industrialist and politician after Independence. Biju Patnaik was the most popular leader in post-Independence Odisha. He began his political innings in the Congress and was close to former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru. At the behest of Nehru, he aided in the Indonesian freedom struggle, undertaking a daredevil air mission in 1947 in Indonesia from where he had flown its leader Sukarno’s close confidants Mohammad Hatta and Sultan Shahriar into India, braving the Dutch threat.
Sukarno’s daughter Megawati Sukarnoputri, who became the president of country, had revealed that she was given the name by Biju Patnaik, who was her father’s friend.
Though Biju Patnaik had become the chief minister of Odisha in the 1960s during the Nehru era, he had a falling out with Indira Gandhi and became the rallying point of anti-Congress forces in Odisha.
Biju Patnaik tried to Instill 'Odia pride' of Kalinga era among people of Odisha and develop the state through industrialisation. The BJD expanded on these ideas. Though from the day of inception the BJD has been saying that it strives to fulfill the dreams ‘Biju babu had for Odisha’, the party has gone through evolutionary processes during its more than two decades-long existence.
While the senior Patnaik faced a fair share of setbacks, the son managed to secure continuous victories in six Lok Sabha polls and five assembly elections starting from 1998 and 2000 respectively. Biju Patnaik had been in power for hardly a decade, which included little more than two years as Congress chief minister in 1960s before he quit under the Kamaraj Plan, three years as Union cabinet minister, and a full term as the Janta Dal chief minister from 1990 to 1995. Naveen Patnaik has been in power since 1998 February, first as Union minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee cabinet and then as the chief minister since 2000 March till date. Twenty-three years of uninterrupted power is certainly an enviable political record.
Since 2009, when Lok Sabha and assembly elections were held together in the state, the BJD has been fighting solo, after breaking ties with the BJP. After Modi came to power in the Centre in 2014, the BJP worked aggressively in the state, and in 2019 became the main opposition party, pushing Congress to a poor third.
Unlike father, unlike son
In the 90s, Biju Patnaik had decried the move by the then prime minister V.P. Singh to carry out the recommendations of Mandal Commission for backward castes, and the Ram Rath Yatra by L.K. Advani, saying “no Mandal, no Kamandal” and added that the focus should be only on eliminating poverty and unemployment. “Poor has no caste,” he said, criticizing the reservation on caste basis.
On the contrary, Naveen Patnaik was in alliance with the pro-Hindu BJP for almost a decade, and has recently taken up development of Puri, considered as the abode of state’s presiding deity Lord Jagannath to transform it into a world heritage city with total investment of Rs 3,208 crore. Though this can been projected as an attempt to boost the tourism sector in the state as Puri is a major tourist destination, the blend of economics and politics in the move is unmissable. Even as political parties of varying hues are embracing soft Hindutva in an attempt to counter the BJP, the Puri initiative is certainly a good political move.
The cult of Lord Jagannath has always overshadowed all angles of religion and caste in Odisha for centuries and that is why all chief ministers attend the car festival in Puri. The state government has also sanctioned huge money for Lingaraj Temple of Bhubaneswar, Samaleswari Temple in western Odisha’s Sambalpur, Baladevjew Temple at Kendrapara and Taratarini Temple in the home minister's home district Ganjam. Since 2016, senior citizens are being offered free pilgrimage to Hindu places of worship every year. In 2019, the chief minister inaugurated a Haj House in Bhubaneswar.
While Biju Patnaik disapproved Mandal politics, Naveen Patnaik got a resolution passed in state assembly last month, which enables state commission for backwards classes to conduct a survey on the social and educational conditions of OBCs. In January, the state government formally moved Centre requesting it to conduct a socio-economic caste enumeration along with general census of 2021. These decisions suggest the eagerness of BJD to keep the OBC vote bank in good humour. While the BJD originated as a countermeasure to the Congress, later it had to fight both the Congress and the BJP. The party, which is not aligned to any camp at the national level, supported CAA and opposed NRC.
The reformer
Within one a of becoming chief minister, Naveen Patnaik sacked three of his ministers as they were ‘under shadow of corruption’. Since then, he tried to maintain a ‘Mr Clean’ image though there were times his government and the party faced serious allegations in the mining and chit fund scams. Although he denied tickets to two MLAs and one MP, who were arrested by the CBI, he offered tickets to sons of both these MLAs.
In his fifth term, the chief minister's main thrust is citizen-centric governance and the focus is on 5 Ts— technology, transparency, teamwork, time and transformation. As part of this move, occasionally the chief minister himself, his officers or top authorities phone common people, asking them if they are receiving all the government services properly. The CM's private secretary V.K. Pandian has been designated as first 5-T secretary and he is making surprising visits to different places like government medical colleges with officials to ensure the implementation of the same.
The police stations too are being modeled to be more people-friendly.
With the aim to boost anti-corruption measures, the government has began making tainted officers resign besides stopping their pensions. A former MLA, belonging to the ruling BJD, was arrested recently in disproportionate assets case.
To give anti-corruption measures a further thrust government has lately started compulsorily retiring tainted officials besides stopping pensions. Even an ex-MLA belonging to ruling BJD from Kalahandi was arrested recently after vigilance raids on his house for accumulation of wealth disproportionate to his legal income.
When Naveen Patnaik became the chief minister in early 2000, the state was still recovering from the super cyclone of 1999 which claimed thousands of lives and caused unprecedented loss to private and public property in coastal districts. In the past two decades, natural calamity-prone Odisha has been hit by several cyclone, including cyclone Fani in 2019. However, under Naveen Patnaik, the state has been equipped to face these disasters and was hailed for the initiatives at national and international forums.
Odisha, which was earlier facing the ignominy of poverty and higher infant mortality rate, now has a stable government, steadily growing economy, record reduction in poverty, and doubled farmers' income. The state has made its mark in the field of sports and tourism and is considered to be highly desirable destination for investment.
Naveen Patnaik has perhaps introduced the maximum number of social welfare measures in comparison to his predecessors. From the Rs 1 per kg rice for poor scheme to to KALIA scheme for farmers which is equivalent to PM-KISAN of Centre, Patnaik government has somehow touched all sections of society besides taking care of other aspects of growth, including infrastructure to industrialization. The mining boom and ongoing auction of mines have come handy for the government as far as resources are concerned.
Because of the new found cordiality, Union Steel Minister Dharmendra Pradhan recently met the chief minister along with Japanese ambassador in India as the country is looking for investment opportunities in Odisha. Pradhan and India’s leading Steel maker Sajjan Jindal, whose JSW has replaced POSCO India at Paradeep to set up a steel plant there, have said Odisha will earn substantially from auction of mines.
The growth index
According to state’s Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari, Odisha’s economy is consistently growing at a higher rate compared to the national growth. During last seven years, the average growth of Odisha has remained about 8 per cent compared to national average of about 6.9 per cent. In spite of slowdown in global and national economy, Odisha’s economy is expected to grow at 6.16 per cent in 2019-20, well above all India growth rate of 5 per cent. The state government has claimed that Odisha has emerged as the most favoured investment destination, attracting a record 18 per cent of total investment in the country as per CMIE Data 2019.
Pujari said the state is expected to grow in the range of 7 to 7.5 per cent during 2020-21. Even in agriculture, the state’s average annual growth rate is 4.5 per cent, higher than national average of 3.1 per cent. Odisha presents a separate budget for agriculture, and in recognition of its agricultural productivity Centre has given Odisha five Krishi Karman awards continuously.
One of the first AIIMS was set up in Bhubaneswar, and the state government has decided to transform state’s oldest medical college at Cuttack—SCB Medical College—into a state of the art facility and turn it into an AIIMS Plus integrated medical institution with a investment of Rs 1,000 cr in next two years. The chief minister has already laid the foundation for the same in a special programme in Cuttack on March 5.
His government has set up four new medical colleges, and seven more are in the pipeline. This will, to a certain extent, help with the scarcity of doctors that the state is facing.
Though Naveen Patnaik had not shown much interest in sports in his initial years as chief minister, he managed to place Odisha in sports map of world after Hockey World Cup 2018 was held successfully at Kalinga Stadium of Bhubaneswar. Odisha has played host to several national and international sports events particularly in last two years. The state is building world class sporting infrastructure along with high performance centres in many disciplines.
It has been observed that the BJD has received maximum number of women votes thanks to the initiative to promote self help groups. On International Women's Day (March 8) this year, the chief minister announced creation of a new department ‘Mission Shakti’ for self-help groups.
On March 5, the chief minister also announced the state government’s decision to provide 20 lakh concrete houses (pucca ghar) to rural poor in next four years. He said state has already provided 25 lakh pucca houses to beneficiaries. He launched distribution of pucca ghar entitlement cards to beneficiaries.
While the chief minister distributed pucca ghar cards, BJP MLAs and MPs met Union Rural Development and Panchayatraj Minister Narendra Singh Tomar in Delhi and demanded a probe into irregularities in rural housing scheme. Even as BJD celebrated Naveen Patnaik’s 20 years in powe, Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee president Niranjan Patnaik said Odisha continued to remain backwards despite BJD ruling the state for the last 20 years and asked which of the dreams of Biju Patnaik has been fulfilled in the past 2 decades. While Odisha failed in the fields of agriculture, irrigation, health and education, there has been an increase in crimes against women and children, the Congress leader claimed.
The political rivals, however, shared dais with the chief minister when the BJD celebrated the birth anniversary of Biju Patnaik and were unanimous in their praise of the senior Patnaik when the chief minister released 'Adventures of a Daredevil Democrat’, a first of its kind comic book on the life and works on the visionary former chief minister.
In his 20th year as chief minister, Naveen Patnaik continues to do the good works initiated by his father, although he may have deviated a bit when it comes to the ideological front.
