Albeit in wildly varied ways, many wise men over the past centuries have conveyed one common message about the secret of success: in order to accomplish something, one needs to work towards it with single-minded focus and unflinchingly persistent dedication.
At a time when elections are in the air, with the nation eagerly waiting for the results of five state assembly elections to be announced on March 10, some prominent regional political leaders have set out on a renewed mission to form an anti-BJP front that can not only challenge the dominance of the saffron party but also have a good chance of overthrowing it from its citadels of power in the 2024 general elections.
The ruling BJP and the flailing Congress, both, have much to think about developments on this front.
However, one man – the one who is arguably the most respected at the national level and unarguably the most successful political leader at the regional level – is conspicuous by his absence from this movement. There are no prizes for guessing who that is: Odisha Chief Minister and Biju Janata Dal supremo Naveen Patnaik.
While he has resolutely followed a policy of equidistance from the BJP and Congress, he seems to have made it amply clear to other regional satraps (without necessarily saying it in so many words) that he has no time or inclination to either lead or be a part of or in any which way be invested in what may be called a new Third Front. The reason is no secret: he simply does not need to.
His focus is entirely different. It always has been.
That is the reason why the United Nations World Food Programme country director Bishow Parajuli, during his recent visit to Bhubaneswar, was all praises for the Odisha government’s poverty alleviation and disaster management initiatives, not to mention its success in controlling child malnutrition.
That is the reason why longstanding separatist voices in the districts of Kandhamal and Koraput and other parts of Western Odisha are dying, being unable to gain any kind of credibility or momentum these days.
And that is the reason why the Hijab issue that has been burning in Karnataka for a while and has even reared up in other states such as Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh, has found no resonance whatsoever in Odisha.
If anything, our state has emerged as a national exemplar of women’s empowerment, thanks in no small part to our Chief Minister’s Mission Shakti initiative that is making millions of women in Odisha self-reliant by providing them with employment opportunities through a plethora of schemes under various government departments. The BJD boss most recently raised the bar higher by reserving the Bhubaneswar Municipality Corporation mayor’s post exclusively for women.
The relentless crackdown on Maoist rebels and corrupt officials has also resulted in Odisha becoming a safer, healthier and economically more progressive state across the rural-urban divide.
The people of Odisha know well enough about the priorities of their Chief Minister. As much as his single-minded focus on his state’s development and its people’s welfare explains his enduring popularity over the past 21 years of his uninterrupted rule, it also ensures the sustainability of his leadership in times and elections to come – whether an anti-BJP front happens or not.
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