Some time in 2001, Orissa Chief Minister and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leader Naveen Patnaik and Union Steel Minister Dilip Ray — the latter nominated to the Atal Bihari Vajpayee cabinet by Patnaik —– took the same morning flight to Delhi from Bhubaneswar. Patnaik chatted with Ray pleasantly, asking his lieutenant his plans about his ministry and suggestions for the party.
Ray got off the plane and found he had been sacked as steel minister, a decision that Patnaik must have taken before he left Bhubaneswar. Patnaik and he had breakfast together but by lunch, Ray was no longer a minister.
This is the measure of ruthlessness that Naveen Patnaik has brought to Orissa politics.
For the common man, it is a refreshing change to be the master, for once, instead of the perpetual victim. In his nine years as chief minister, Naveen Patnaik has dropped 10 ministers. If there is even the smallest allegation of corruption or misdemeanour against a minister, he is dropped immediately, considered unworthy of holding public office. No wonder, this has earned him a lot of applause and has contributed to his image as a clean and firm administrator.
In 2003, when the BJD and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) went for a “friendly” fight in the municipal elections in Orissa, the BJP did so well in Cuttack that it managed to appoint its own Mayor. It got a sizeable section of the seats in Bhubaneswar too.
In 2008, however, it was a fierce battle for supremacy in the elections to Bhubaneswar and Cuttack municipal corporations which saw the BJD sweeping the elections, with the BJP getting just a handful of seats — presumably the voters’ way of letting their leaders know that they appreciated the accountability of politicians introduced by the BJD. When the higher education minister in his government, Samir Dey (BJP), said that it was Patnaik’s ill-gotten gains that had won the election, and that it was not the BJP that had lost, Dey was forced to resign the next day.
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The recent parting of ways between the BJD and BJP is part of the same pattern. Every time BJP leaders from Orissa came to Delhi to complain against the peremptoriness of Naveen Patnaik, party leader in Delhi, LK Advani, dismissed their complaints out of hand. He did so again about a week ago when leaders said Patnaik was not honouring the coalition dharma in seat allocation. Advani called on Patnaik when the latter’s mother died recently and mentioned to him that if there was a problem they could talk. “No problem,” assured Patnaik and added that though he was not negotiating himself, he was sure the small negotiation gliches would be sorted out.
They were. And how!
Patnaik did not attend the rally in Tumkur held to mark the official formation of the Third Front. Observers say this could be his way of keeping all options open — as always. When communal violence erupted in Kandhamal following the killing of Swami Laxmanananda, Patnaik shrugged off all blame, passing it on to the BJP’s lack of control over the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP). But soon Orissa will run out of people to pin the blame on.
Naveen Patnaik has, in the last 12 years since he first joined politics, travelled a long way. The man who used to count Jackie Onassis, Mick Jagger and other jetsetters as his friends hasn’t gone abroad in at least five years. He used to be interested in gentlemen’s pursuits: Writing, drawing. A Second Paradise: Indian Country Life; A Desert Kingdom: The People of Bikaner; and Garden Life: An Introduction to the Healing Plants of India are all books he has written. No longer. Now, Naveen Patnaik, as he heads for a third term as chief minister, revels in being unpredictable, possibly even opportunistic.