Naveen Patnaik has clearly changed tack. Having realised that speculation about his alleged ‘deal’ with the top leadership of the BJP could cost him dear in an election year, the Odisha Chief Minister and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leader appears to have embarked on a well-calibrated strategy of taking on the Narendra Modi government to dispel any such impression.
The first signs of the revised strategy came when Patnaik dished out a nine-point chargesheet against the Modi government on the occasion of his party’s 21st Foundation Day, celebrated barely two days after the PM visited Odisha on December 24.
No one missed the stridency in the tone, tenor and language of the attack by a man never known for attacking anyone frontally. It was particularly noteworthy because the Prime Minister had surprised everyone and disappointed his party workers by refusing to name Patnaik or the BJD even once, talking in vague, generalised terms about the lack of development, distress migration and corruption in Odisha in his public address near the historic Barunei Hills near Bhubaneswar.
And on Thursday, the Chief Minister dashed off a letter to the Prime Minister that just stops short of accusing the latter of lying. Referring to ‘media reports’ of his speech, Patnaik refuted Modi’s claim that the Odisha government, which had come to power by promising to provide irrigation to an additional 10 lakh hectares, had managed to create irrigation facilities for a paltry 22,000 hectares.
Giving a breakdown of additional facility created, the Chief Minister wrote: “I am happy to share that since 2014, Odisha has created an additional irrigation potential of 7.8 lakh hectares and we are on course to surpass the 10 lakh hectares target that my Government has set for itself.”
This was a clear repudiation of Modi’s claim. But Patnaik didn’t stop at that. Acting completely out of character, he also took a dig at the Modi government for doing precious little to augment the irrigation potential in the state.
“From 2014, an amount of Rs 26,889 crore has been spent in the irrigation and water sector with a contribution of Rs 1211 crore (i.e.) 4.5% from the Government of India contribution through PMKGY (AIBP). In fact, in the current year a record amount of Rs 10,196 crore has been provided by the state,” the CM wrote.
Patnaik could have restricted himself to ‘disproving’ Modi’s claim. But the reference to the Centre’s meagre contribution made it clear that he wanted to do more than that.
At a surface level, the timing of the angry rebuff by the Odisha Chief Minister may appear surprising because it came 10 full days after Modi’s visit. But significantly, it came just two days ahead of the second visit to the state in a fortnight, a first for any Prime Minister during non-election time.
Two major political developments took place in these 10 intervening days, one each in New Delhi and Bhubaneswar. First, the BJD, in a clear departure from its conduct in the last few months, sided with the Opposition in Parliament on the issue of a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the Rafale deal. Coming as it did after years of fence-sitting and open support every time the Modi government needed support inside Parliament, the move was yet another indication of the recalibrated strategy worked out by the BJD supremo.
Second, BJP leader Pradip Purohit said on Wednesday that there was a “90% chance” Modi would contest from Puri in upcoming general elections. While speculation about Modi contesting from Puri has been going on for several months now, this open announcement by a BJP leader appears to have set the cat among the pigeons in the state’s political circles. Some observers are linking the announcement by the BJP to the CM’s letter on Thursday.
For all one knows though, both the speculation about Modi opting for Puri and Patnaik’s new-found anger against the PM could well be part of the cat-and-mouse game the BJP and the BJD are playing. It is equally possible that both sides are pretending to fight while keeping their options open for a post-poll understanding.
Things would become clearer when Modi addresses a public meeting at Baripada on January 5. All eyes will be on the Prime Minister’s every gesture and all ears on every word he speaks — or doesn’t speak — for any indication about the new equation by the two frenemies.
As for Naveen Patnaik, he loves nothing more than keeping people guessing!
(Author is a senior journalist. Views are personal)
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