Modi likely to seek Naveen’s support in 2019

Baijayant Panda has turned very sore. Once upon a time, for Biju Patnaik, he was a blue-eyed darling of the Biju family. Baijayant’s father was an extremely lucky engineer whose entrepreneurial venture at Therubali in Rayagada district turned out to be a goldmine.

For decades, the IMFA group of industries churned out a globally monopoly product called ‘silicon metal' to turn the Panda family stinking rich. Baijayant, as the elder son, was born with silver, gold and platinum spoons in the mouth.

The Panda empire later bought off the principal IMFA patron Biju Patnaik’s flagship company Kaling Tubes in Choudwar for a song. Bijubabu, the compulsive political adventurer was then in great financial distress and, to keep his political outfits and followers going, he sold off many of his prized assets across the country.

Baijayant set up a charge chrome plant at Choudwar in collaboration with a Scandinavian major. Huge tracts of precious chromite mines were given away to the IMFA group.

But by the time the charge chrome adventure came up, the business world had crashed economically and the demand for charge chrome slumped like never before.

The Pandas lost heavily; and there was rumour of the plant closing down for good. Suddenly, around this time, some fertile brains in China and elsewhere craved for iron and chrome ores for some goddamn reason and all the long-suffering mine owners, not even able to pay staffs due to want of income, became billionaires overnight.

 Iron ore was scraped off every mine area; and for nearly a decade between 1999 and 2010, the only business domain that reaped jackpot earning was in the mines and minerals raising and trading sector.

Even today, the mining boom gone, chromite keeps yielding astoundingly huge profits for Baijayant without much input or investment. Whether or not the charge chrome factory runs to add value to the ore, Baijayant remains filthy rich.

By a thumb-rule estimate, the current Panda may be taking home a cool five hundred million rupees every month. How he handles his income and other taxes is best known to the concerned officials. His father had worked hard to make things happen; but Baijayant got heavens heaping billions without effort. All divine lottery!

Baijayant joined politics obviously to keep his units live and safe like many industrialists do. He also did so well by remaining close to the enigmatic Naveen.

The entire BJD outfit too was in awe of the younger Panda. The big reason was that Baijayant's intelligent wife Jagi Mangat had become immensely successful as a media entrepreneur.

By the time Naveen appeared on the scene, Jagi was already a media baroness. Her Ortel communications had become a force to reckon with for the popular Otv news channel and the Skyview cable network which, with the help of several State agencies, had emerged as the leader in the media domain.

All was well until recently. A few of the political creatures did not feel comfortable with the disciplined ways of Naveen’s running the administration. Knowing too well that the populist politicians, whose number is sizeable, could ruin the party if given free hand in everything that is to do with development and progress, the iconic Chief Minister chose a few skilled bureaucrats who were honest, loyal and understood statecraft well.

Naveen, after a prolonged exercise of scrutiny, zeroed in on a rather young administrator, who was not born in Odisha but is a ‘son-in-law of the soil' for having married the first Odisha-cadre Odia woman IAS officer Sujata Rout, now Sujata ‘Karthikeyan'.

Naveen outwardly is a casual person, but truly he is very non-negotiable about the traits of integrity and usable skills in his officials and political colleagues. Not known to many, he is a master ‘mind reader'. Only because he leads a very simple lifestyle, people imagine he is just not bothered about any serious matter relating to the State and he cares a damn about the sentiments of Odias and their culture including the great Odia language.

As any serious politician with a clear vision of a developed and happy Odisha, he too has strong conviction about what governance approach can yield the desired results and what will badly fail.

All political classes know well that their limited knowledge of the Constitutional spirit, basic and bare laws and people-friendly rules can land them in big trouble.

So when framing policies and rules, they wholly depend upon the sharp, clever bureaucrats who have come through rigorous tests and exposures.

Naveen is a maverick politician who, as the chief executive of the State, thinks and dreams out of the box. Naturally therefore, he has meticulously picked a very few officials who can place best choices and options before him for taking critical decisions. Naveen chose Karthikeyan solely because he is a patient listener and too willing to learn by experimenting new ideas and schemes with a view to learning more, particularly from mistakes.

Naveen marked Karthikeyan because of his superb energy and resilience levels and, above all, grasping powers. Apart from all this, they both clicked well with each other and the rest is known. Karthikeyan took complete charge of the problem-solving domain. He proved that his ways of ironing snags and bringing warring factions together within the fold are commendable.

Naveen transmitted a clear message across the rank and the file of the executive and the administrative wings that Karthikeyan be consulted on all contentious issues and be guided by him back and large on all other State matters. Not once has the official meddled in the political processes except when Naveen has sought his opinion on any issue concerning the ordinary people.

Unfortunately, some self-serving politicians, not used to be guided by ingenious public officials, experienced unimaginable discomfort and distress. Baijayant Panda is not part of the ordinary class. He does not seem to be one who can see through the hearts of the poor and devise schemes for them to bring joy.

He has the arrogance of wealth, education and being in political power. So, going by the advice of a young bureaucrat did not go well with him. He considered Karthikeyan a greenhorn who was expected to seek his advice instead. Panda was also close to the Biju family, particularly Naveen. So, he openly displayed his political supremacy.

Hence, the bad blood between them, which the world is witnessing today. Baijayant would do better to hug the young genius and forget the ill will generated out of nothing but ego with which Karthikeyan never plays. Naveenbabu cannot ever write him off because the young officer has proven to be an asset on all fronts over the years.

There is talk of Baijayant being in the BJP fold. But what he does not seem to know is that Modi cannot ever ignore or offend Naveen in future.

 As it looks now, the BJP is unlikely to make an easy comeback. But Naveen is certain to remain in power as long as he desires; he will be back in 2019, 2024 and even after that. Modi would fall short of numbers in 2019 as the BJP in Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh is unlikely to retain power to make Modi the national boss yet again.

Modi will require Naveen’s backup in 2019. So, Baijayant has to be cautious about his relationship with Naveen. Dharmendra Pradhan is ineffective as proven in the Bijepur by-election. He had promised the bosses a victory or a marginal defeat with a 2,000-vote difference. Naveen crushed him badly with a 42,000-lead. For all this, Dharmendra cannot ever be real company to anyone aspiring big things in political life.

Baijayant is not looked up as a force in Odisha for obvious reasons. He is in big business. So, he will be seen as a self-serving business entity. So, being obsessed with taming a serving bureaucrat may cost him dearly, primarily because the official is delivering as per the Chief Minister's desire. And Baijayant has caused woes for Naveen by wrongly believing that he has a big opportunity with the BJP. Kendrapada is gone forever.

They say he will cultivate Bargarh, his maternal soil in western Odisha. But then, the Conch is certain to blow away the Lotus graphics in thin air. That’s the report people get from the pollsters.

(The writer is a core member of Transparency International, Odisha)