Another election where voters will lose!

IRONY is that people always think journalists know everything and flood them with questions when any issue is in debate. And during elections, journalists are psephologists. This common perception often puts me in trouble. I escape very tactfully. I was in discussion with my friends on the current political scenario in Orissa. As usual they went on asking me several questions. Who is going to be the next Chief Minister of Orissa? Which party will win maximum number of Assembly and Lok Sabha seats? Will the Congress back to power in Orissa? What will happen to the BJP after snatching tie with its decade old friend BJD?

‘Time will determine everything’, was my simple answer. They expected predications from me. Being in media, we should not propagate any political party. This is the ethics of journalism, which I have learnt from my teachers and professional gurus. I asked my friends a simple question- Who will lose in the upcoming elections? The answers I got are BJD, BJP, Congress, NCP and so on. I was not satisfied. My answer was voters.

It is the voters who will be the ultimate losers. For, they are confounded, if not confused towards the rapidly changing political equations in the state politics. The answer was somewhat strange to them all. Let me prove my argument from the today’s development itself.

Bijoy Mahapatra is the most worried man. For, he has been betrayed twice. When BJD-NCP leaders cherished their pre-poll alliance, Mahapatra babu took no time to resign from the NCP. The Presidentship of the Orissa unit of NCP was held by him from the very beginning when his party Orissa Gana Parishad (OGP) merged with Sharad Power's outfit to expose the ruthlessness of Naveen Patnaik.

Upset Bijoy said,

"I have been fighting the misrule of the Naveen Patnaik government for the last nine years. How can I have any relationship with a person against whom I have all along been waging a battle”?

It was the year 2000. Orissa was in full swing for Assembly elections. Mr. Mahapatra was a BJD leader then. He was considered a trusted lieutenant of former chief minister late Biju Patnaik and headed many important departments when Biju babu was the chief minister from 1990-1995. He was nominated as a BJD candidate for the Patkura constituency in Kenderapara district for the 2000 Assembly election. But on the last date for the filing of nominations Naveen Patnaik chose somebody else. Naveen's calculated action gave Mahapatra little time to complete the formalities required to contest even as an independent.

Within six months of his expulsion, Bijoy Mahapatra formed a new outfit, the Orissa Gana Parishad (OGP) and merged with Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in 2007. The alliance determined to wipe out BJD.

At one point of time, the NCP leaders were the strong critic of BJD government and garbed much public attention. Now, NCP is an ally of BJD. So, who is confused here? Voters. Aren’t they?

Let’s proceed from this and discuss about the political campaign. It is better to begin with Naveen Patnaik.

The BJD chief kicked up his poll campaign from his home district, Ganjam. Addressing a gathering in Gopalpur, he said, “I and my party feel free after snapping ties with the communal BJP,” .

Mr. Patnaik added that the people of Orissa knew that it was the BJP, which was guilty of “betrayal after enjoying power for a long time due to the alliance [with the BJD].” He said the BJP leaders decided much earlier to end the alliance. “So, on March 7 night they preferred to go to the Raj Bhavan and withdraw support to the government even while seat-sharing talks was still on.”

His entire speech was aimed at reinstalling faith among the people by justifying his decision to ending relationship with the BJP. However, Naveen did not raise issues that people expected from him.

Being head of the incumbent government, Naveen should have projected achievements of his government and future strategies for the development of Orissa. He should have explained his government’s steps to curb out unemployment problem, which forces thousands and thousands of people to join the army of migrants each passing day. He should have talked about the MOUs which his government signed in the last 10 years. He should have also discussed about the necessary steps to stop starvation death and farmers’ suicide in the state. At least, he should have bothered about the long standing local problems, like development of Gopalpur sea beach, implementation of water projects, road connectivity, tourism and so on. None of these issues were raised in the campaigning.

Not surprisingly, the BJP which has also started its election campaign did not raise the issues which should be publicly discussed. The party was part of the ruling coalition for the last 11 years. So, who can better know the drawbacks and hidden agenda of BJD than BJP?

In its first election campaign as dubbed ‘Vijay Sankalp’, flamboyant BJP leader Sushma Swaraj known for her oratorical skills and quick adaptability to other languages addressed the massive gathering in the state capital. She gave her introductory remarks in Oriya before changing her tune to Hindi. Well. It is the first attack on Naveen Patnaik on language front.

Naveen’s apathy towards Oriya language despite in power for the last 11 years is indeed regrettable considering the ethos of the state. No one can deny that Orissa as a separate state was craved out of language revolution.

In her lengthy speech, Swaraj did not highlight the drawbacks of the incumbent government. She only lamented the breakup of the BJP-BJD alliance. If Sushma was not familiar to Orissa politics, then the other leaders like Biswabhusan Harichandan, Juel Oram, Kharavel Swain, Dharmendra Pradhan, Manmohan Samal, Surama Padhi, Chandan Mitra and State Unit Chief Suresh Pujari should have exposed the loopholes that the incumbent government conceded at the developmental fronts.

While development and industries had remained limited to memorandums of agreement, the promised goal of creating 10 lakh jobs in 10 years’ time has remained a distant dream. The state’s debt situation had gone up from Rs 18,000 crores in 2000 to Rs 42,000 crores in 2008. The day is not far when the state exchequer will be hardpressed to pay the salary of its employees. In the past nine years the Naxalite menace had spread to 18 of the 30 districts in the state. While 76 policemen had fallen to rebel bullets, some 132 civilians were killed in red attacks. These are the real political issues, which the leaders are overlooking.

Perhaps, it is first time in Orissa’s electoral history, we see such a meaningless campaign where the ideological lines are so blurred and parties have shown the kind of flexibility that would make a trapeze artiste turn green with envy.

Image: Zee News