‘Go back Andhra’ new twist to border row
On April 1, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan did a Yusuf Meherally of sorts. The former socialist leader and mayor of Bombay gained fame for his ‘Simon Go Back’ cry to oppose the all-British parliamentary commission in 1928; Pradhan let out the ‘Go Back Andhra’ slogan against neighbouring Andhra Pradesh for its ingress into Odisha’s territory. Kotia, a cluster of 21 villages in the Koraput district, is embroiled in a territorial jurisdiction row between the two states. The matter is now within the Supreme Court’s purview.
With the Union minister asking Andhra Pradesh police officials to leave Kotia when Odisha was commemorating its statehood day, the issue triggered a string of political reactions. Andhra Pradesh’s deputy chief minister, P Rajanna Dora, sought an apology from Pradhan. Both the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also unleashed a war of words.
The saffron party’s state unit expectedly threw its weight behind the Union minister, whereas state revenue minister and senior BJD leader Pramila Mallick put the ball back in the NDA government’s court, seeking its intervention. The truth is that Pradhan’s slogan would do little to end the row.
Both states can wait for the apex court’s order or hold bilateral talks to sort it out. Under such circumstances, questions of the constitutional appropriateness of the Union minister taking such a stand would be raised. Besides, he had written to chief ministers of both states in the past to resolve the matter mutually.
However, Pradhan seems to have got what he wished for—political traction over the issue. With the 2024 elections not far away, both BJD and BJP are out to outsmart the other. South Odisha—much of the undivided Koraput district, to be particular—has turned into a large electoral landscape for BJD in the last 20 years after slipping away from the Congress’ clutches.
BJP currently has just two MLAs against the ruling party’s 10 in four districts, and that’s where it would want to enhance its presence. While the national party pushes its tribal outreach programme, it has to combat a vigilant BJD government that is on overdrive, announcing a slew of development projects in tribal-dominated pockets. Perception plays a crucial role in politics and requires the right optics, which the Naveen Patnaik-led BJD is smart at. Pradhan’s ‘Go Back Andhra’ must have been aimed at that.