CM With A Teflon Coat

His state may be down in the bottom rungs on most human development indices, but nothing seems to affect Odisha’s Naveen Patnaik, the country’s longest-serving chief minister, who continues to tower over all others. Odisha has slipped from 15th position to 19th, figuring among the bottom five, in Niti Aayog’s annual ranking of states in Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Yet, Naveen’s image as a saviour of women remained unblemished despite crimes against women rising from 94.5 per lakh women to 103.5 in the past year even as sex ratio at birth fell from 938 to 933. Even his government’s unabashed promotion of liquor has failed to cut into his popularity with women, who are at the forefront of the anti-liquor movement. Most assessments said over 70 per cent of female voters voted for his party in 2019—the biggest reason for the BJD winning a record fifth successive term.

Murders per lakh population have gone up from 2.95 to 3.01 and crimes against children from 22.70 to 49.90, while human trafficking per 10 lakh population jumped from 7.04 to 20.03 since the previous edition of the SDG report. None of this, however, has sullied Odisha’s carefully cultivated image as a ‘peaceful state’ and Naveen’s image as an adroit administrator.

In the aftermath of Cyclone Yaas, which ravaged parts of Odisha’s northern coast, Naveen did something no other CM had ever done—he refused to ask for central assistance, saying he did not want to “burden” the Centre that needs resources for the difficult war against Covid. This was packaged as an act of ‘statesmanship’ and acknowledged as such by a country long used to states running with a begging bowl to the Centre every time disaster struck. For a change, it appeared as though the Centre was holding the begging bowl. Naveen, in fact, won appreciation when he met PM Narendra Modi, especially in the backdrop of West Bengal CM Mamata Ban­erjee skipping her meeting with the PM.

The real reason for the ‘statesman-like’ act, however, lay elsewhere. Yaas was no Fani (2019), not even Amphan (2020), and the damage it wrought was minimal—mostly in two districts. The state’s assessment put the loss at no more than Rs 600 crore. In any case, notwithstanding the CM’s refusal to ask for assistance, the PM had announced an immediate assistance of Rs 500 crore after an aerial survey of the affected areas. “Odisha did not need any immediate assistance as it already had over Rs 1,900 crore in its state disaster response fund, nearly Rs 600 crore of which had been transferred by the Centre just days before the cyclone struck,” says state BJP general secretary Golak Mohapatra. “The CM was merely trying to score brownie points when he declined to ask for assistance.”

And Naveen did win the brownie points, also on his government’s handling of the cyclone. “Patnaik has provided the political commitment necessary to build a robust and well-res­ourced disaster management authority,” said head of the UN office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) Mami Mizutori. But, while the government claims to have evacuated about six lakh people in the run-up to the cyclone, a Congress leader asks how so many people were still living in kuchha houses—that too in a small area affected by the cyclone—when the government claims to have provided pucca houses to more than 90 per cent of the homeless.

Naveen’s uncanny ability to foretell what would bring laurels and enhance his national profile is not of recent origin. It has been on display, especially since his fourth term. In the run-up to the 2019 general elections, the BJD supremo served an ace when he announced reservation of 33 per cent of party tickets for the Lok Sabha for women. Despite not extending the gesture to the assembly polls that were held simultaneously, it bolstered his image as a leader who bats for women’s empowerment and brought the overwhelming majority of women’s votes. A year earlier, he had created a national buzz by proposing that the word ‘ahimsa’ be inserted in the Preamble of the Constitution. So, what exactly gives Naveen this Teflon-like quality where no dirt sticks? Veteran political commentator Rabi Das believes it has to do with his steadfast refusal to talk—and act—like the average politician. “He never uses foul language against his rivals. In fact, he has made it a point not to join issue with any Opposition leader even when he is attacked personally. Instead, he lets his chosen lieutenants return the barbs, while he stays high above all this,” says Das. It is indeed Naveen’s refusal to speak out of turn or use the standard voc­abulary of an Indian politician that has endeared him to people outside the most. The outsider sees him as a gentleman who strayed into politics and yet managed to do the seemingly unthinkable by remaining a ‘gentleman’ more than two decades after taking the plunge. Naveen’s decision never to speak in public without a scripted text, pilloried by his critics as a sign of a leader unsure of himself, has actually proved to be his USP, positioning him above the rest.

With his unique positioning, something Odisha had never seen before, Naveen has quietly demolished Odisha’s political class—or, at least, made it irrelevant—in the two decades he has been in power. He has managed this by talking to people directly from every possible forum—billboards, cut-outs, TV, newspapers, phone, social media and so on—without actually talking to anyone in person. He has also used his status as an unmarried person to telling effect in positioning himself as the head of the “family of 4.5 crore Odias”. For all the talk of succession, he has refused to name or groom a successor and this has further endeared him to people.

Another trait that has stood Naveen in good stead is his refusal to be part of any grouping at the national level for electoral purposes or otherwise. He has always believed in ploughing a lonely furrow and never sought to play a more active national role. Whenever he has been asked why, his stock reply has been: “I am happy serving my 4.5 crore Odia brothers and sisters.” He could well be making a virtue out of a necessity in doing so. He has not worked his way through the ranks to emerge as a leader nor ever sat in the Opposition benches, so he knows he is not cut out for the ‘dog eat dog’ brand of politics any ‘national’ leader needs to engage in. His “4.5 crore Odia brothers and sisters” couldn’t care less and see him as someone they can trust to be by their side when they need him. Naveen’s handling of the media has also played a major role in building a halo around him. “I must admit that he manages the media really well—gross mismanagement at the Covid centre in Bankishol never makes to the national media, though Aaj Tak comes calling when a woman in Jagatsinghpur drives a bullet and presents it as a case of women’s empowerment under Naveen,” says BJP leader Mohapatra.

Falling human development indices, monumental scams and deteriorating law and order—Opposition leaders say these are Naveen’s ‘achievements’. But it remains a lasting riddle for political pundits to decode how Naveen remains una­ffected by all these. If anything, his stock has only risen.

By Sandeep Sahu in Bhubaneswar