Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik attending the Budget Session of Odisha Assembly made such big news a few days ago in no small part to the flak he had been drawing from some opposition party leaders for not being physically present during House proceedings since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic two years ago. The fact that he had regularly attended assembly and other official meetings via videoconferencing throughout this period somehow never seemed to count for his detractors.
These critics have been asking how could the Chief Minister attend sports programmes at Kalinga Stadium, tour across the state to launch Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana smart health cards ahead of the panchayat polls and even inaugurate government-run restaurants, but could not be bothered to visit the state legislature and his office at the Lok Seva Bhavan in all this time. Some of them have even used this matter to spread baseless rumours about his ill health.
The Chief Minister has dispelled such rumours time and again, either in word or action, or both, only to reassure the people of his state that he is in fine fettle. The latest instance of that was the 250-metre brisk walk he took on March 24 from his residence, Naveen Niwas, towards a polling booth to cast his vote in the urban local body elections.
However, he has never really cared about defending himself from, or giving explanations to, such critics. The very fact that even the latest Assembly session was being conducted with strict adherence to Covid-19 safety precautions and protocol, especially at a time when daily cases have plummeted to lower two digits, explains enough about the wisdom behind the Chief Minister’s decision against spending time in enclosed and fairly crowded spaces when Covid cases were running into tens of thousands.
The people of Odisha never had a problem with his work-from-home arrangement, especially when much of the world had been compelled to do the same anyway. More importantly, his government was working like a charm even in the thick of the pandemic. These realities were reflected most recently in the results of the rural polls and the urban local body elections, where the Biju Janata Dal enjoyed landslide victories.
While addressing the Budget session, even Governor Ganeshi Lal lauded the Naveen Patnaik administration for its commitment towards “developing all regions of the state and empowering all sections of the people … to move into a transparent, technology-driven, transformed new Odisha”. The Governor particularly praised the state government’s concerted efforts to boost the healthcare delivery system and infrastructure during the pandemic, apart from the Chief Minister’s schemes to provide financial assistance to lakhs of landless farmers, sharecroppers and poor people with kutcha or damaged houses.
Another quality that has held the BJD supremo in good stead over the past two decades is that he never underestimates the opposition. Just before the Budget Session started, Chief Minister Patnaik presided over a BJD legislature party meeting in the Assembly premises where he advised the treasury bench members on how to tackle the questions that opposition parties were expected to pose as part of their latest attempts to corner the government.
Staying well-prepared for potential challenges and proactively tackling those when they present themselves has been second nature to the five-time Chief Minister – a trait he shares with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. No wonder the two leaders are looking increasingly invincible in their respective arenas.
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