‘Political expediency’: BJD legislator critiques his boss Naveen Patnaik actions

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik has not spoken yet on the controversy around his junior minister for home Dibya Shankar Mishra’s alleged links with the man accused of murdering a school teacher.

BHUBANESWAR: Odisha’s Biju Janata Dal (BJD) lawmaker Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, who has occasionally taken a stand independent of the party line, on Wednesday said chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s first decade in the state’s top seat was marked by zero tolerance to crime and corruption but his latest actions are dictated by political expediency.

Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s USP during the first decade of his rule was zero tolerance to crime and corruption, said BJD legislator Soumya Ranjan Patnaik in an editorial on Wednesday (Arabinda Mahapatra/HT File Photo)

The scathing observation in a front-page editorial in Odia daily Sambad edited by the legislator comes against the backdrop of the chief minister’s hands-off approach to the raging controversy around the minister of state for home Dibya Shankar Mishra for his proximity to the prime accused in the murder of a school teacher in the state’s Kalahandi district. The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJD) and the Congress have stepped up attacks on the Naveen Patnaik government, saying they want the chief minister to sack his minister who was alleged to have been close to the murder accused, Gobind Sahu, president of the managing committee that runs the school where the teacher was employed.

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik hasn’t spoken on the controversy yet.

In the editorial, the BJD lawmaker said Naveen Patnaik’s USP during the first decade of his rule was zero tolerance to crime and corruption. “Probity in public life was the hallmark. And this is what endeared him to masses in Odisha. People saw him in a different league. But now, political expediency dominates. As the BJD has been in power for over a decade due to lack of a viable political alternative, ego is ruling the power corridor,” wrote Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, a reference seen to hint at inaction over the alleged proximity of the minister with murder accused Gobind Sahu.

Sahu strangled 26-year-old school teacher Mamita Meher in his car in Kalahandi district on October 8 after she allegedly threatened to expose him. According to the police, he cut her body into pieces, burnt it and then buried the remains in an under-construction stadium near his school, the Sunshine English Medium school. He was arrested on October 19 and is now in jail.

“In his first 10 years of rule, Naveen received the admiration of people of Odisha through his work which is rare for most politicians. By 2024, Naveen may break the record of Pawan Chamling and Jyoti Basu as the chief minister with the longest tenure. But he has not done anything that would ensure that his name is written in history in golden letters. Now no one remembers the tenure of Jyoti Basu or Pawan Chamling. It is quite possible that Naveen Patnaik may meet the same fate,” he wrote.

“The influence of big money in elections, winning at all costs, no ethical conformity et al have become the new normal. The outcome is then a spike in corruption cases and throttling of transparency. How many MLAs from the party can dare to come clean about not having any disproportionate assets,” he asked.

This isn’t the first time that Soumya Ranjan Patnaik had questioned the party’s stand.

In July this year, his signed editorial in his paper sought a white paper on deaths due to Covid-19 in the state, observing that there was a desperate race among states to keep the figures on the lower side. His advice to the chief minister was to display the courage to release the white paper, telling him that “people will love him more” even if the numbers are on the higher side.

Odisha BJP leader Prithviraj Harichandan said Soumya’s comments described the BJD’s ‘home affairs’.

BJD legislator Prasant Muduli challenged the picture painted by Soumya Patnaik, insisting that the state has seen a remarkable transformation in the last 20 years. Naveen Patnaik first became chief minister in March 2000 and led the party to victory in 2019 when he started his fifth term.

The BJP, meanwhile, continued to amp up the pitch against the ruling BJD and constituted a three-member committee comprising MP Sunita Duggal, BJP Mahila Morcha’s national president Vanathi Sriniwasan and MLA Rupa Mitra to look into the murder of Mamita Meher. On Wednesday, BJP workers also gheraoed the Balasore SP office demanding the dismissal of Dibya Shankar Mishra. In Sundargarh, party activists led by Sundargarh MP Jual Oram submitted a memorandum to Sundargarh SP to seek a CBI probe into the case.

The Odisha State Commission for Protection of Child Rights has issued a notice to Kalahandi SP to seek a report within seven days. The commission said it is under the impression that the guidelines issued by the Odisha Women and Child Development Department to ensure a safe environment in institutions where children study or live were not adhered to.