BHUBANESWAR: Chief minister Naveen Patnaik today said one has to be compassionate and caring to be a good leader.
Receiving the award of Ideal Chief Minister from former President Pratibha Patil during the eighth Indian Students' Parliament at Pune, the chief minister said, “When you keep people first-it is good
politics, when you keep people first there is no anti-incumbency.” The Bharatiya Chhatra Sansad Foundation, in association with Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs, UNESCO Chair of Humanity and MIT School of Government organised the event at the campus of MIT World Peace University.
Accepting the award, Naveen said the honor belongs to four and a half crore people of Odisha who have reposed their faith in him over the past 17 years.
The chief minister spoke about politics and good governance. While the last two hundred years have been the most dramatic years in human evolution in terms of big data, block-chains and nano-technology, the same has not percolated to governance and public service, he said. Stating that good governance and selfless public service are the pillars of democracy, Naveen said the biggest challenge is to strengthen governance and instill hope in the youths. Referring to his political debut twenty years back, he said, “I would have never imagined that I will be standing here as one of the longest-serving chief ministers
of the country.” “Politics is not complicated, but is the most powerful instrument to bring about change in the lives of people,” he said.
People have to be kept at the core of your intentions, efforts and initiatives, Naveen said and added his government faced a stiff challenge six months ago over the issue of urban slum dwellers. “The choice was between continuing the practice of evictions, treating slum dwellers as encroachers, putting them in constant fear and insecurity or providing them the land rights,” Naveen said and added, ”we chose the second option. This has been done for the first time in the country and was path-breaking.” He said the decision of the Odisha government to set up tribal development councils for tribal majority districts was innovative.
The chief minister said election is not important, but change and transformation is important. “If you love your people, you don't fight for elections, you fight for change and transformation,” he said.
Naveen said, “If you work for the people, you will continue to live in the hearts of people like Mahatma Gandhi and Biju Babu.” “If you keep people at the forefront, it is not a political journey, it is a spiritual experience,” he concluded.
Former union minister Murli Manohar Joshi, noted scientist RA Mashelkar and several other eminent personalities from different walks of life were present.