Going against his image of the somewhat reticent and mostly softspoken politician, Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik kicked off his party?s strident anti-Centre campaign last week as he flagged off the Biju Janata Dal?s padyatra from the poverty stricken zone of Nuapara district.
The padyatra is now a standard feature in the BJD?s political calendar in the last three years. Between Gandhi Jayanti on October 2 and Jayaprakash Jayanti on October 11, party leaders convene signature rallies throughout the state. But at the Nuapara rally this year, Patnaik launched a fusillade of criticism of the Centre, alleging, among other things, that the Centre has never stood by his government at the time of adversity such as drought, flood and cyclone. The confrontational tone was unmistakable as he went on to elaborate just how the Centre was neglecting the state?s claim for increase in coal royalty on an ad-valorem basis.
Leading the padayatra at Bhubaneswar simultaneously, Rajya Sabha member and the CM?s political advisor, Pyarimohan Mohapatra, said the party?s ?anti-Centre? protest marked the beginning of a systematic campaign against the Union government?s ?perpetual apathetic attitude and negligence? towards Orissa. Before the padyatras, the party held three anti-Centre rallies at Lanjigarh, Malakanagiri, the district to be worst affected by the Polavaram project, and Jagatsinghpur, where Posco proposes to build its 12-million tonne steel plant.
The political fireworks reminded observers of Naveen?s father, the late Biju Patnaik?s strident anti-Centre utterances. During the 1991 general election campaign, Biju Patnaik, the then chief minister of Orissa, touched off an uproar by saying that his state would secede from India if the Centre continued to create hurdles in its economic growth. However, his remarks did not reap any political dividend for the Janata Dal in the ensuing Lok Sabha elections; the party fared poorly.
So why is Naveen doing something his father has already tried and failed to do? Is the BJD chief using the rallies to mobilise support for his own carefully crafted image that has taken a hit after the Centre?s twin blows on big-ticket investments like Posco and Vedanta.
Opposition leaders and Orissa watchers say Naveen is trying to lift his sagging morale after the Ministry of Environment and Forests blocked the bauxite mining of the Niyamgiri mountains in Kalahandi district by Vedanta Alumina using the NC Saxena Committee report. Two days after the MoEF blow, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi flew to Niyamgiri to address a tribal rally where he declared himself their ?sipahi? (soldier) in Delhi. Before the Vedanta blow, the ministry stopped land acquisition work for South Korean steel major Posco?s proposed steel plant at Jagatsinghpur district citing alleged violations of the FRA.
Political watchers say there is genuine fear in Naveen?s mind and even in BJD ranks that the Congress is out to gobble the party?s newly acquired tribal votebase in Orissa by caricaturing the chief minister as a leader in love with corporates. Though he has been elected three times as chief minister, such a campaign may well tap into the growing fatigue among the people over the fruit of development not reaching them at all, or adequately.
?By talking about the Centre?s neglect, Naveen is making a calibrated attempt to gobble up the Opposition space in Orissa. Two, by saying that Orissa won?t tolerate interference from the Centre on exploitation of its natural resources he is secretly hoping that it would reap political benefits. In a sense, he is trying to reposition himself in the tribal and Oriya psyche as the only politician who can guard their interests,? said noted political watcher Rabi Das.
Opposition leaders however say Naveen is trying to be too clever. ?The war against the Centre is just a diversionary attempt to hide his own failures of governance. He was a Union minister and worked in ministries like coal, steel and mines. Surely, he knows how much the Centre can intervene in matters of natural resources. Hundreds of people are dying of cholera in Rayagada while drought has gripped several western and northern Orissa districts. But he does not shed a tear for the cholera victims or drought-affected farmers,? said former BJP leader Balgopal Mishra.
The chief minister and his political advisors are arguably raising the anti-Centre bogey to correct the party?s corporate-friendly image. It remains to be seen whether or not the rallies and padyatras will yield electoral dividend in a state where such a campaign has been rejected in the past.