By Sushil Kutty
Two Assamese defend Prime Minister Narendra Modi as often as they invent a chance. One of them is Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. The other, a journalist-turned-media baron who never tires of praising the Prime Minister. Both these gentlemen are ever ready to do a full-stretch ‘sashtang-pranam’ at the Prime Minister’s feet at the drop of a hint from the Prime Minister’s aides. Of the two, CM Biswa Sarma takes the cake, primarily because of his funny Guwahati accent.
Also, Sarma chooses his targets based on who Prime Minister Modi is attacking at a given point in time. The current victim of Sarma’s unsolicited attention is Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, whose left hand was seen shaking and Modi immediately ruled that Naveen had health problems which made him unfit for the Odisha Chief Minister’s job. Taking the cue, Himanta Biswa Sarma added that forget the hand, “Pandian was recently seen trying to control CM Patnaik’s legs, too.”
VK Pandian is an IAS officer of Tamil origin who took VRS and is often spoken of as Naveen Patnaik’s successor. Pandian is also Prime Minister Modi’s favourite stick to beat Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik with. Modi can’t seem to be able to get VK Pandian out of his head. Pandian is the last man standing between Modi and Odisha, and Patnaik.
And imagine, Modi used to call Naveen Patnaik “my friend” at one time. Those were the days when Modi used to get away with the subterfuge. Not any longer. Asked a couple of days ago about Modi and Odisha, Patnaik quipped, “So much for a good friend”, hoping that Modi understood English as much as Patnaik understood Odia. Modi had been rather critical of Naveen Patnaik’s control over his mother-tongue Odia and had been voicing his objections to the Odisha public at every stop he made in Odisha.
Modi’s No.1 charge against Patnaik is that Naveen is grooming VK Pandian as his successor and Pandian’s Odia is as shaky as Naveen Patnaik’s hands. Modi can be most irritating with his relentless attacks on rivals who are already down and out. No wonder Modi happens to be the most hated politician in the tribe. Tejashwi Yadav will gladly exchange ‘machchi’ with Modi’s jugular for lunch. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is waiting for June 4 to get a grip around Prime Minister Modi’s jugular.
Naveen Patnaik was not seen as an enemy of Modi, but is a foe of recent vintage, forced to offer clarifications to Modi’s doubts on his health and fitness. Everybody knows about Modi’s fetish for Yoga but the Prime Minister travels the whole nine yards and doesn’t seem to know that it is not good manners to target political rivals with “health attacks”. Health is a personal thing and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said, “If he cared for my health, he could have picked up a phone, and called.”
Hell, no. Modi only calls foreign heads of state to enquire about their health.
So, what does Modi want? By Modi’s own admission, on July 10 Odisha will get its first BJP Chief Minister, meaning the Patnaik government’s days are numbered and VK Pandian might as well go and meditate at the Vivekananda Rock Memorial where Modi is currently sitting cross-legged and planning, among other upheavals, Puri Jagannath’s future with Sambit Patra at Modi’s beck and call. SambitPatra is the same person who discovered that “Odisha’s Prabhu” is a ‘Bhakta’ of Narendra Modi.
The electorate of Puri might or might not forgive Sambit Patra but what plans Lord Jagannath has in store for Naveen and Narendra will be out on June 4. Meanwhile, Patnaik has dismissed speculation of VK Pandian succeeding him. “VK Pandian is not even contesting Lok Sabha or state Assembly polls,” Patnaik contrived to add, raising doubts on whether Patnaik is in control or Modi is set to take charge of Odisha?
Have Odisha’s voters cast their votes for an end to Patnaik rule? Naveen Patnaik is the president of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and forcing Patnaik to deny that VK Pandian is not his successor is a huge concession to Modi. “He is not my successor. I see all of this as exaggeration and falsehood,” Patnaik said. “Pandian is not even contesting the Lok Sabha or state Assembly elections.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s interference in the internal affairs of the BJD is irritating and unwarranted. What has Narendra Modi got to do with the succession plans of the Biju Janata Dal, which was founded by Patnaik in December 1997? “The successor will be decided by the people of the state. The party is being run for the service of the people of Odisha and will continue to do so.”
Modi has been using VK Pandian’s “outsider” tag to destabilize the minds of the Odia people against the BJD and against Naveen Patnaik, finding all sorts of faults in the Chief Minister, from his command over the Odia language to his shaking hands. Also get Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to let out the “secret” that VK Pandian also “controls Patnaik’s stumbling legs”. Above all, keep saying BJD is the past, and the BJP, the future of Odisha. On June 4, Odisha people will know if it’s shaking hands all over again or a purported pair of safe hands. (IPA Service)
