Tempest in the Land of Scams: Ruling Party in Peril; No Alternative Visible

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

There is a tempest in the Scamsterdom.

Orissa, the land of peace-loving people, turned into a land of scams by the compradors in power, is seeing its ruling party rushing into peril. Yet there is no political alternative visible.

The BJD is breaking.

Its president Naveen Patnaik, has suspended Pyari  Mohan Mohapatra, the real architect of the party’s 2009 electoral victory, due to jitteriness over news that he was trying to snatch away from him his twelve years old position as head of the State’s political government. The action is authored to dismiss him.

A year ago, on 23 May 2011, I had foreseen this. My caption was, “If Pyari Mohapatra is not dismissed, he will replace Naveen Patnaik as CM“. My analysis has come out correct. What I had expected to happen, has happened.

To stay safe in power, Naveen has played such stunts many times earlier. Whenever he has apprehended threat to his position from any member of the party, he has dismissed him/her from the cabinet or party post, even from the party, hurling unestablished charges and on flimsy grounds. To save his own skin, when a scam is exposed, he has also found scapegoats in any of his colleagues.

This time, along with Mohapatra, he  has suspended two MLAs and dismissed three ministers from his cabinet because of suspicion that they were one with Pyari in the internecine rebellion.

But like the ministers or members dropped from the cabinet and/or dismissed from the party on earlier occasions, these persons are not the victims of Supremo-syndrome. These are the people, who, in the pack of sycophants constituting BJD, are of leadership quality reflected in their wisdom to  revolt against the scams that have ruined Orissa.

Along with time, the rebels in BJD are bound to rise in numbers. Orissa is devastated by so many scams in the regime of Naveen Patnaik, that, people are looking at everybody known as his loyal colleagues with suspicion as a possible  scamster for which,  many in BJD, who are not involved in the scams, are feeling very awkward, embarrassed and  suffocated.

They are in BJD, simply because there is no alternative available to them.

But they also know that the BJD brand will not help them in the next election.

Therefore they will try to explore if any alternative to Naveen could be discovered or built up.

Pyari Mohapatra has taken the first welcome step in this regard.

Many of BJD members will join him in course of time as people will wake up to save their State, which is bound to happen, and it would be increasingly clear that siding with scamsters will lead to their rejection in election.

By demanding CBI investigation into mining scams, Mohapatra has made it clear that saving Orissa from the scamsters will be his principal approach to election.

Mohapatra’s distinction

In fact, Mohapatra was the brain behind electoral victory of BJD in the last election. He shattered Naveen’s two-term old coalition with BJP by choosing its strongman K..V.Singhdeo’s political nerve centre Bolangir as the launching pad of his unilateral battle against BJP. He surprised everybody including his party by pronouncing his declaration to plant BJD candidates in all the constituencies in Orissa. Heavyweights in BJD, such as Dr. Damodar Raut did not hesitate to criticize Mohapatra’s assertion; but there was none to stop his steps.

Mahapatra’s steps not only broke the coalition with the rightist BJP, but also paved the way for electoral understanding with the left, thereby giving the party of compradors a cover of progressive color, which helped it face the electorate in a renewed spirit. Had it not happened, Dr. Raut who is leading the present attack on Pyari, might himself not have returned to the Assembly, the left being of immense influence in his area.

Mohapatra’s declaration that, in all the constituencies under occupation of BJP, there shall be his party candidates, also instantly ignited hope and aspiration in  the low lying constituency level leaders of BJD for berths in the legislature, resultantly waking them up to ensure victory for the party, while leaving the unprepared former ally entirely perplexed.

This is why BJD had won.

BJD had won not because of popularity of Naveen, but because of assertive acumen of Pyari, which augmented the feeling of freedom to contest that the BJD workers in BJP constituencies were not having till then, because of the coalition.

Had Mohapatra not done this with determination and in time, the results of the election would have been different and Naveen could not have become the Chief Minister again.

The position was such, that,  had he wanted, after the election, except at best a dozen of coastal area MLAs and a single MLA from Ganjam, all other MLAs of BJD could have stood behind him and instead of Naveen, he could have become the CM.

Yet, like Chanakya (Pyari was being aptly called Chanakya of BJD so far) he preferred to remain a king maker and therefore, it became possible for Naveen to become the CM , for the first time, on the strength of a single party, not of a coalition.

Naveen’s Predicament

But, curiously,  when in the preceding two terms of heading a coalition with BJP, he had not faced any rebellion, either in the segment of allies or in his own party, Naveen is facing it now while heading his own party government and  to such of his wit’s end, that he is not able to distinguish between personal loyalty and political prudence.

The situation shall not improve for him. He is in such a situation that he cannot escape the land-grabbers. He cannot extricate himself from the traps of POSCO, Vedant, Tata and the likes. None of these industries have come to Orissa on invitation of its government to execute projects planned and required by the State. They were in search of lands and mines; and have stumbled upon Orissa, where, to their advantage, compradors are in power. They have gained over the compradors in such manners that the State is waging wars on its own people at their behest. They are in a position to blackmail Naveen if at any point of time within his incumbency he dares to stop serving their interest. Thus it is not possible for Naveen to refuse to dance to the tune of the corporates.

In such a situation,  whosoever in BJD is not involved with the scams and has respect for prudence in public life and loyalty for the motherland, will rise in revolt against him and join Pyari.

Plenty of sycophants
sans leadership quality

In the last more than a decade, precisely since BJD was formed, none but Pyari has proved to be a person of leadership quality. In the party of sycophants, he alone was the man from whom, the people know, the Chief Minister was taking instructions.

Now as he has been jettisoned, Patnaik will stay surrounded by the sycophants and, by the vested interests. Plenty of sycophants sans political acumen would be of no use to Naveen. This will further push Orissa into labyrinths of scams that people would  no more tolerate. BJD ‘s peril will further deepen and deepen beyond management.

Orissa in turmoil

But it shall not end Orissa’s turmoil.

A political alternative to Naveen would be needed to save her from the scamsters, from the compradors.

Pyari, in the present environment, cannot give that alternative.

Because, being the de facto Chief Minister all these years, he cannot convince the people that he was not a party to the crimes committed by the de jure CM against the people.

To be able to offer the alternative, he is to come out with details against Naveen, because he knows where, when and how the CM has played his part in the scams.

He has started demanding for a CBI investigation into mining scam. Mining is not the only scam that has hit Orissa. The State is scam-stroke. And, Pyari knows it.

So, if he is sincere to the new role he aspires to play, he must reveal all that he knows of all the scams and all the details of Naveen’ collaboration therewith.

Instead of stressing on CBI inquiry, he should divulge details to the general public and thereby help the general public treat the traitors with appropriate action.

Biju experience

Let us not forget that Biju Patnaik, father of Naveen, on capturing the Chief Minister post for the first time, by prevailing upon Jawaharlal Nehru to quash Harekrushna  Mahtab’s coalition with Bolangir’s former king R.N.Singhdeo, had generated so many scams that there was a mass uprising against him led by the students and youth of Orissa, consequent upon which he was forced out of office, though the Congress leadership in the center had given his dismissal a veil styled Kamraj Plan.

The Central Government had tried to hoodwink the people with a Cabinet Sub-Committee investigation, which, in fact, was a covering up exercise to help the bigwig of their party; but because of unrelenting protests against such protection to Biju, it had been forced to institute a probe by the CBI into allegations of scams against him.

The CBI tried its best to protect him also; but could not entirely ignore the massiveness of the scams he had masterminded and executed. It recommended for further investigation by a more powerful body alleging that the Orissa government (run by the party of Biju) did not properly cooperate with the sleuths conducting the probe.

The central government, instead of acting against Biju, slept over the CBI report.

What happened?

People punished Biju in the following general election, by bringing in the revived combine of Mahtab and Singhdeo (the coalition of Swatantra party and Jan Congress).

Biju tried to to return to power by forming a new regional party. But the people refused him mandate in the next election too.  

So, instead of demanding a CBI inquiry, Mohapatra, if he is sincere in what he says, should place details of Naveen’s role in the mining and all other scams before the general public, so that the people can take their own decision.

Unless he does it, he cannot be the expected alternative, though, because of him, the ruling party of Orissa is certainly in peril.

Congress cannot be the alternative

India of the majority Indians is perishing because of the Congress; because of Manmohan Singh’s pernicious economic policies.

The cause of India is sabotaged to provide a bonanza to nuclear traders of USA. Fraud has been played upon Indian Constitution to serve the interests of avaricious industries and corporates.

The crimes that the Congress has committed against the country ever since Manmohans and Miukherjees and Montakes and Sonia’s and sycophants have emerged as planners and leaders are so monstrous that it would be a folly to accept the Congress as the alternative to Naveen in Orissa.

This is such a party that its central leadership has helped Naveen to defeat Congress in Orissa and to continue in power. To retrieve our democracy from the grip of plutocracy that its leadership has shaped, it should be the country’s top priority to get rid of the Congress and hence it would be wrong for Orissa to accept the Congress as an alternative to the BJD.

Despite cleaner members, BJP is neither

On the other hand,  when in power, BJP was a party having a national president in a man like Banguru Laxman, now convicted with four years of rigorous imprisonment for having received money to facilitate a deal though thereby the country’s defense was to have been endangered.

Its government was a government also of George Fernandiz whose official residence was being used as a bribe hub in defense deals.

No government till then had a disinvestment ministry addressed to divest India of her industrial assets at the behest of private operators.

For the first time in India, a new pattern of culture was created and created by the BJP led government. It was the culture of corruption.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s blue eyed boy Pramod Mahajan, son of a low grade low-paid school teacher, had been able to amass an unestablished assets worth Rs.2000 Crores within a short span of time in the BJP regime.

This culture was so much in practice by BJP bigwigs that eight of its MPs were caught taking money for  putting questions in Parliament, from from fellows who had ulterior interests in those questions. The Parliament had to dismiss them from membership to save its own dignity.  

This party is also a party of real life compromise with the Congress. It had never condemned Jaswant Sinha for the farce he made of the Parliament in matter of BCCI, the bank of terror funding. There are many such instances where BJP’s expertise in sabotaging the cause of Indian democracy is so huge that depiction thereof is beyond the power of words.

For Orissa, therefore, this party may not emerge as the alternative, even though it is true that there are many in it, whom people of the State know as less corrupt and more competent than others.

Remote possibility

In the circumstances, an united left is the only credible alternative which can be made available to Orissa, if both the Communist Parties – the CPI and CPI(M) – can convince the people that they are repentant for their hobnobbing with the right viruses in the past in thirst for power and honor the revolutionaries whom the compradors are condemning and their collaborators in administration are torturing.  

Such a left combine can constitute a progressive front with Pyari babu and his team of the BJD rebels; and, if this could be possible, it may also be possible for the less corrupt elements of BJP to join hands with this front.

There are many in civil society that are opposed to Naveen Patnaik  in the cause of eco-systems, in the cause of environment, in the cause of human rights, jin the cause of right to employment, right to education, right to good health, and right to fair living et cetera.

The united left front, if it could be possible as contemplated above, can attract their active or moral support.Thus, an alternative may emerge.

But as on now it is not visible.

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