The politician I would be - (Part 1)

 

A clean politician in India is very rare. But here we have one politician, who has never even been accused of doing corruption, even by the oppositions. Simply because, they know not even god would believe it. One of the longest serving Chief Ministers of India and the longest of Odisha, Naveen Pattnaik has stood strong in front of both UPA and NDA. A man who has never lost an election in his life since the first election as for MP in 1997, Naveen was a totally different person before he joined politics.

An Introduction

Naveen was born to Late Shri Biju Pattnaik, former Chief Minister of Odisha, in the year 1946 at Cuttack and then went to Welham Boys School, Dehradun and then moved to The Doon School, Dehradun. He completed his BA under Kirori Mal College, Delhi University. He was a person of art and history. He opened his own boutique called Psychedelhi in the posh Oberoi hotel of Delhi and had the Beatles as one of his celebrity clients. He was an author and two of his books have been edited by his friend Jacqueline Kennedy, wife of American President John F. Kennedy.

Lived most of life out of Odisha, Naveen came down to the state politics after the sudden demise of his father. Starting his political career in his father’s seat, Naveen won the first election as MP, even with his broken and very limited knowledge of Odia. There has been no stopping him since then. After forming his own political party in 2000 after the name of his father, he has been the CM of the state since then till today, in his 5^th term currently.

Naveen – The politician

BJD started its political journey by joining the NDA under AB Vajpayee. After winning the 2000 elections, he was selected as unanimous leader. He tremendously stays as the boss of the party and government and doesn’t tolerate wrong doings by officers or even by senior ministers. Even being a close friend of Vajpayee, he decided to break away from NDA after the BJP allegedly supported Kandhamal riots in 2008. BJD led by him successfully won the 2009 elections with a huge margin. He even got a distinctive image of being secular and maintained equal distance from both UPA and NDA and his parties votes at parliament different on different occasions. However, in matters that doesn’t have a direct impact on the state, he voted in support of the party in power at centre. Mostly because they can help in clearing packages and including Odisha in projects. 

Starting as CM in a state which wasn’t doing well economically is difficult. But under him growth has doubled and the GDP of the state since 2012 is 8.9 % (before Covid) which is more than the national GDP. He has carved out some amazing policies which is directly sent to the account of the beneficiaries and hence his vote at the rural population is very good. Leading a state prone to cyclone isn’t easy. But over the years the administration under him has not only learnt how to manage and deal with it, but also made sure that there are 0 casualties. He recently has been acknowledged by the UN for this form of administration. The reason of this is very simple - he values good suggestions. Irrespective of where it comes from: from a Minister, or a top-level bureaucrat or a serving officer of the department, if your point and suggestion is good enough for the state, he takes it up.

The article is continued in part 2 in the next blog.