Subhas Chandra Pattanayak
Lack of self-confidence and language of frustration sic passim its President’s speech confounded the BJD members on its 17th foundation day, despite all out attempts to assure them of political stability.
Many in BJD are not professional touts. They are there, because they believe that a strong regional party can protect Orissa’s interest in a better way. They are quite embarrassed as their President’s close colleagues – MP and MLAs – are behind the bars under charges of criminal involvement in chit fund and land scams. That, needle of suspicion is sharply pointing at their President is no less embarrassing to them. They are so embarrassed that facing the people affected by chit fund cheating is becoming difficult. People are looking at them askance since the CBI has started investigation into chit fund felony, arresting inter alia some of the chit fund operators that were known to them as their President’s pampered persons. The way their Supreme leader Naveen Patnaik, despite being the chief minister with unprecedented strength in the House, run away from facing the Assembly, has embarrassed them to the core and all the BJD members – rank and file- feel too demoralized to sustain their confidence as ruling party members. So, they are really eager to get back the lost face. The BJD foundation day designed to be celebrated in a grand way was a great chance to stop the disillusionment spreading sharply amongst them. So, they were expecting that Naveen babu would make his position unambiguously clear in the matter of chit funds and land allocation scandals, so that the foundation day celebration clound be a profound reply to his critiques.
But, Naveen Patnaik is so short of explanation, that, he could not dare to open his lips in that matter. His assertion that the BJD’s electoral success is perturbing other parties for which they are trying to denigrate it, is rather indicative of fidgets he has developed after arrest of his colleagues and blue-eyed boys by CBI in chit fund scam and after unveiling of criminal favoritism in land and plots and flats allocations.
Naveen’s nervous speech on BJD foundation day has really confounded its members.