Politics is a power game that’s played without rules or morals. It’s also the art of converting friends into foes. In the name of seeking a mandate to rule, politics can become a tool to destroy the opponent's image. Nothing else can explain the ongoing verbal war between the BJP and the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in Odisha. In a replay of the Kalinga war of 321 BC, on one side is the mighty Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his trained generals looking to expand their empire, no matter the cost. On the other side is gentleman-politician Naveen Patnaik and his silent sentinels who are battling quietly to retain his father's fiefdom.
The longest-surviving chief minister in India at the moment, the 77-year-old Patnaik is asking for a sixth term to govern Odisha. A measured man of frugal needs, Patnaik has turned out to be that rare politician whom even his sworn enemies would hate to hate. But now he has been drawn into his worst-ever electoral battle where identities have been weaponised, forgotten promises have been resurrected and ugly words exchanged.
While he embarks upon his adamantine aim of retaining power, his pertinacious opponents have launched a powerful campaign to oust him from office. And they have not chosen his work, but his physical seclusion and choice of personal aide, to attract voters. The BJP has concluded that Patnaik has lost his usual political luminescence and invincibility.
With the Congress almost vanishing from the state, it is the BJP which smells a possible victory by personally targeting the CM. In doing so, it has abandoned a trusted coalitionist who endorsed crucial NDA legislations in parliament. Strategically, the BJP has shifted the focus from performance to perception. Its objective is to paint the CM as a leader whose administrative skills are waning and who is surrounded by persons who don’t have Odia roots.
It is for the first time that an officer-turned-politician has acquired centre stage. V Karthikeyan Pandian, a former IAS officer who has served the CM as his man for all seasons, has been catapulted as the biggest threat to Odia identity and its cultural heritage. Married to an Odia IAS officer, Pandian is credited by his party for pulling the state out from backwardness to its current status as one of the fastest-growing states. Since caste and regional aspirations play a decisive role in electoral outcomes, the BJP expects rich dividends by attacking the soldier than the general himself, using the old adage that you can sway a thousand men by appealing to their prejudices rather than appealing to one man's logic.
Surprisingly, it was Modi who fired the first shot despite often having praised Patnaik, including barely a couple of weeks ago. But politics, sadly, is a matter of convenience. It doesn’t relish the idea of compromise or accommodation, especially when it comes to attaching new territories through mergers and acquisitions. For the BJP, Odisha seems to be a new market that the party feels it can acquire as its most powerful brand, Naveen Patnaik, is facing a massive anti-incumbency wave. The BJP is expecting not only to win at least 15 of the 21 Lok Sabha seats, but also for the first ever saffron government in the state.
So once the preliminary talks for even a symbolic alliance failed, the BJP opened its artillery from all directions. The strategy was three-fold. To begin with, minimising the Cult of Naveen Patnaik and invoke the threat of Odia cultural dilution under his rule. A look at the tenor of speeches made by BJP leaders and the response from the BJD during the campaign reveals the ugliness.
Modi: “I want to challenge Naveen babu as he has been the CM for such a long time. Ask Naveen babu to name the districts of Odisha and their capitals without seeing them on paper. If the CM cannot name the districts of the state, will he know your pain?”
Patnaik: “Do you remember the promises he made in the 2014 and 2019 elections? Odisha's natural wealth is coal, and you take coal from Odisha, but you have forgotten to increase the royalty in the last 10 years. The PM is remembering Odisha only at election time. You have allotted Rs 1,000 crore for the development of Sanskrit, but nothing for the Odia language. You have forgotten about Odia music too. There are so many brave sons in Odisha, a few of whom the PM named during his campaigning. Don't any of them deserve the Bharat Ratna? You have given away the Bharat Ratna to so many people, but you again forgot about the great son of Odisha, Biju Patnaik.”
Home Minister Amit Shah: “This assembly election is an election of Odisha's pride. Can a Tamil rule Odisha? Can a Tamil babu run Odisha? I assure you, if you form a BJP government, a young CM from Odisha, a CM who speaks Odia, will rule here.”
Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma: “I believe a high court judge should speak to Naveen babu alone to see if he is happy and okay. I mentioned a high court judge because they would be neutral. Once, a judge should speak to Naveen babu alone for 10 minutes.''
Patnaik to Sarma: “The per capita deficit (debt) of his state is double that of Odisha. He should really look into the matter in his own state. The people of Odisha are laughing at them… BJP CMs and central ministers are coming to Odisha and promising to make it number one in the country. I think they should first concentrate on their own states.”
Pandian: “My karmabhoomi is Odisha, while janmabhoomi may be Tamil Nadu, which I didn’t choose. I am an Indian first.”
Though the public discourse is personality-driven, the religious undercurrents of the campaign are quite visible as well. BJD leaders feel that the BJP is unnerved by Patnaik’s soft Hindutva. While the BJP and the PM were engaged in reviving forgotten Hindu temples all over India along with the construction of the Ram temple, Patnaik evolved his own unique plans to gain the support of hardcore Hindu voters. During the past five years, the Odisha government has spent over Rs 4,000 crore on renovation, reconstruction and restoration of ancient shrines dotting the state.
His masterstroke was visible when, on January 17, Patnaik dedicated to the state the Rs 800-crore Shree Jagannath Heritage Corridor around the temple in Puri. It was done a week before the Ram temple was inaugurated in Ayodhya. Since then, the BJP has drafted its most powerful CMs, Union ministers and other opinion makers to turn the tide against the Odia leader who sacrificed his party’s Rajya Sabha seat so that Modi could induct former IAS officer Ashwini Vaishnaw into the Union cabinet. But the BJP wants complete power in the state, and is no longer satisfied with being a marginal player. As Napoleon Bonaparte once commented: “In politics stupidity is not a handicap.”
PRABHU CHAWLA
prabhuchawla@newindianexpress.com
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