By SASMIT PATRA
Mungeri Lal ke Haseen Sapne. This is the name of a Hindi television serial which was a household hit from 1989 to 1990. Broadcast by good old Doordarshan, the character in this play named Mungeri Lal daydreams about his fantasies coming true in a bid to escape his low self-worth due to the bossism of his wife, father and office boss over him. Naveen Patnaik in Odisha’s political lexicon has also turned into a Mungeri Lal.
One fine day, Naveen decided that he was better off becoming the Prime Minister. All this to escape the obscurity of being the Chief Minister of a most economically poor State and successfully keeping it at the lowest rung for the past twelve years. Bravo! In order to run into reckoning for Prime Ministership, Naveen opposed formation of the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC). He rallied other non-Congress Chief Ministers to thwart the move for the anti-terrorist body while the Maoists continued to abduct district Collectors, MLAs and Italian tourists with impunity from within his State. Despite being the pioneer of this opposition, he gradually found Nitish Kumar and Mamata Banerjee more often quoted on the NCTC than him.
Naveen felt that suitable branding was necessary in order to become a tall national leader.
Nitish, Mamata, Jayalalithaa and Narendra Modi had it in plenty; then why not I, reasoned Naveen. Into his arms fell Purno Agitok Sangma. A man, with whom Naveen might not have even shared a cup of tea in the Central Hall of the Parliament, became his long lost brother. From declaring Sangma as his BJD’s Presidential candidate; and handholding him figuratively during the nomination process, handholding him literally in the post-nomination process outside Parliament, Naveen stopped at nothing to emphasise that if the 2012 Presidential Elections would ever be remembered then it would be remembered for his BJD candidate, Sangma. Thus, Naveen’s first Mungeri Lal dream was to spring into reckoning for the Prime Ministerial position, lest Nitish Kumar jumped the gun and led an NDA coalition or a third front coalition supported by the NDA.
The second Mungeri Lal dream for Naveen stemmed from his hope that the Presidential election was his passport to the national branding which he self-confessedly so richly deserved. If Modi after Godhra and Gujarat riots, Mamata after Singur, Nitish after BJP alliance and Jayalalithaa after trunk-loads of alleged ill-gotten goodies could hold national eyeballs and eardrums then why not Naveen. But sadly, neither could Naveen brand himself effectively as a national leader nor did his NCTC thwarting bid help him win friends and allies. Nitish and Janata Dal (United) supported Pranab Mukherjee despite Sangma being the BJD candidate. Mamata did likewise. Only anna Naveen and akka Jayalalithaa were the last man and woman standing as the NDA virtually fell apart with the Shiv Sena also backing Pranab. Having dreamt two dreams of NCTC and Sangma, Naveen decided to stop dreaming and restored him to sanity.
Shaken out of his daydream slumber, Naveen decided to stay wide awake when the Vice Presidential elections came by. No Mungeri Lal dreams were dreamt, no national political posturing was entered into. This was his greatest mistake in national politics. Supporting Sangma was not a mistake though the effort was foolhardy. Protesting NCTC was also not a mistake. It was a tactical move which did not bring about the necessary dividend.
But by washing his hands off the Vice Presidential elections, Naveen has portrayed himself as a weak politician, a man who is still not sure about a stand he needs to take. Still not sure on which side of the riverbank to stand! By playing Pontius Pilate, the Chief Minister and BJD supremo has scored a self-goal. A political leader of national stature sticks his neck out. The only living thing which puts his neck inside its hide when facing a dilemma is the tortoise. If one has to play safe, there are better videogames to play than national level political games. Naveen by shying away from the Vice-Presidential elections hopes to have cured himself of the Mungeri Lal dream syndrome but in effect has tarnished his aspirations of being a national leader with his own hands.
The funniest aspect was the logic provided for Naveen not supporting Jaswant Singh. His acolytes have been shouting hoarse on TV channels stating that Naveen and the BJD are maintaining equidistance from the corrupt Congress and the communal BJP and, therefore, the decision to abstain from voting in the VP election. Firstly, corruption as seen in Odisha during Naveen’s tenure has never been witnessed even in the worst corrupt regime of the Congress. Lakhs of crores of mines and minerals have been stolen; scams galore from pulses to coal. Horse-trading in Rajya Sabha elections to sacking 33 Ministers in 12 years; Naveen has seen all and done all. Just continues to parrot innocently, “Odisha mori, main nahin makhan khayo; maro Minister log khayo, isiliye tain tees ko bhagayo.” (Dear Odisha, I did not eat the cream; my ministers ate it; and due to this I sacked 33 of them). To this statement all his faithful said Amen and continued to vote him to power! Coming to communalism, Odisha has reported the largest number of communal incidents within the last 12 years than ever before. Therefore, such logical arguments do not hold water.
The fact is that Naveen has lost the moral authority to claim his right to the national stage now. If a political leader shuns decision-making, then what kind of a leader is he? Look at all the political parties and their respective leaders, big or small. All of them are siding with someone or the other in the VP elections. Not one is abstaining and hiding. Naveen has burnt his fingers in national politics. His leadership is being questioned in Delhi including the BJP whose hand Naveen used to rock Sangma’s cradle but conveniently forgot the hand when it needed Naveen to rock Jaswant’s cradle. In the coming days, Naveen will focus more on Odisha than Delhi. While it may augur well for the BJD considering that Pyarimohan Mohapatra and Prafulla Ghadai are lurking round the corner, Naveen’s abstaining from VP election has short-circuited his national aspirations and tarnished his image as a leader of national stature.
(Dr Sasmit Patra is a keen observer of Odisha politics. He can be reached at sasmitpatra@gmail.com)
Courtesy: The Pioneer
