‘Five-time Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s brand of non-divisive politics, development-oriented governance and inclusive growth serves as a beacon of hope’
By SUNJOY HANS
Editor-in-Chief
The world is straining over the novel strain of coronavirus from China that is threatening to reach epidemic proportions and neighbouring India has naturally been placed among the top 30 countries at “high risk”.
While it is heartening to see concerned authorities across the nation take plenty of precautionary steps to ensure that the deadly virus does not enter or spread here, it is early days and there should be no dropping of guard until this danger well and truly subsides.
The Narendra Modi government also must be commended for taking public sentiments over the Nirbhaya case into account and urging the Supreme Court to change the rules and procedures in death-row cases so that convicts can no longer continue to exploit legal options and delay the punishment they doubtlessly deserve.
Now here is an unpleasant truth: While problems like the novel coronavirus may eventually be controlled within months through due and diligent preventive measures, those such as the Nirbhaya convicts or the numerous others of their ilk are symptoms and products of a far more complicated disease that afflicts our perversely patriarchal society. Hence unless the right kind of legal and other remedial measures are put in place and religiously implemented, there can be no hope for this country to ever find a cure.
The Bharatiya Janata Party’s top-rung leadership, though, must be a highly distracted lot these days.
The Delhi elections are drawing nearer and the charismatic Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal still appears to be the firm favourite to win it and continue as Chief Minister. But the BJP is still using all tricks from its political playbook to make for a formidable adversary in the two-way battle that the assembly election in the national capital is tipped to be (considering the listless and leaderless status of the Congress party).
Dragging in the Shaheen Bagh protests issue to give a nationalist flavour to Delhi elections instead of fighting it on the plank and promise of development may work in the saffron party’s favour for some time but not for long, according to some political analysts.
Amid all this, five-time Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s brand of non-divisive politics, development-oriented governance and inclusive growth serves as a beacon of hope and a shining example for those seeking sustainable success as politicians and leaders.
While critics of the Biju Janata Dal leader’s style of administration point to the cons of overreliance on the bureaucratic machinery, time has proven otherwise. A rising number of political experts have come to recognise the merit of the Chief Minister’s decision to have an exceptional IAS officer such as V.K. Pandian serve as his right-hand man to implement his development and welfare schemes.
His additional appointment as the 5T secretary a couple of months ago was only a natural progression for Pandian who has since then proven himself all over again as the kind of officer that the Chief Minister as well as the state need to ensure the success of the ground-breaking Mo Sarkar initiative and the world-class 5T model of governance.
If such standards can be instituted across the country, threats such as the novel coronavirus and the Nirbhaya convicts can automatically be minimised.
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