The BJP, the party with a difference, took its tagline to a different level when its workers barged into the official residence of V Karthikeyan Pandian, private secretary to Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, in the state capital on Saturday. In full media glare, the saffron party activists went on a vandalising spree which included smearing cow dung on the gate of the IAS officer’s residence. Expectedly, the incident drew all-round condemnation though the state BJP tried to put up a brave face and called the act a democratic protest. The BJD and Congress deplored the incident while all the service associations criticised the attack and called for stringent action.
The vandalism was not only unprecedented but marked a new low in the state’s political discourse. For quite some time, the All India Services officer has been in the crosshairs of the BJP which accused him of running the affairs of the ruling BJD in the state. If the saffron party has reservations about an officer acting politically, there are appropriate forums for it to register a protest which the party should have explored.
In fact, the BJP had objected to the conduct of the collector and superintendent of police of Bargarh district, where the by-poll for Bijepur Assembly constituency is due on February 24. It took up the matter with Election Commission of India and the two officers were shifted last week. Similar lawful course of action could have been chosen by the party but it was not to be.
Unleashing party workers to target a government officer was unbecoming of a national party and sent a wrong message to the entire administrative apparatus of the country. The BJP seems to be desperate in the run-up to the Bijepur by-election and wants to change the narrative by such stunts. This is not how the saffron party must act if it wants to win the confidence of the people to govern. The BJP’s think tank would do well to introspect; otherwise it risks alienating the administrative machinery which it can ill afford.