All seems not well in the 'home' affairs of ruling BJD. When the Party is grappling with sleaze and murder charges, and all-around opprobrium had started hitting the 20-year old BJD government, senior BJD lawmaker and editor Soumya Ranjan Patnaik today vent out his angst in an editorial piece in his vernacular daily.
What seems eye-popping is the lawmaker from Khandapada has once again taken potshots at none other than CM Naveen Patnaik.
"The USP of CM Naveen Patnaik in his first decade of rule has been zero tolerance to crime and corruption. Probity in public life has been the hallmark. And this is what endeared him to masses in Odisha. People viewed him in a different league. But now, the political expediency dominates," writes Soumya.
As the BJD has been on the power seat for over a decade for the lack of a viable political alternative, ego is ruling the power corridor, Soumya writes.
How many lawmakers from the party can dare to come clean about not having any disproportionate assets, he questioned in the editorial.
The big salvo Soumya fired is, "The vices like 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 discernible in a spike in corruption cases and throttling of the transparency - the USP - of CM Naveen Patnaik regime," he writes.
The BJD lawmaker has also questioned the efficacy of Mo Sarkar initiative of the State government and made an observation that the police seemed to be playing more into the hands of the influential and the powerful than ever before.
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Taking a swipe at the irony, Soumya writes that erecting buildings for education and distributing smart health cards will not fulfil the aspirations of unemployed Odia youths.
Soumya who joined BJD in 2018 has often provided fodder for political debates with the editorial, ‘Ama Ghara Halchal’ in his vernacular daily, The Sambad.
From questioning the State government's Covid death figures to the coterie politics in the Party, the senior leader has been poking regularly at the party affairs off late.
While, BJP and Congress lapped up Soumya’s incisive comments with glee, the BJD junked the claims saying the BJD government is successful on all fronts, the achievements in the later 10 year period have been glorious.
Odisha BJP leader Prithviraj Harichandan termed Soumya’s comments as a fitting description of the stark picture of the BJD’s ‘home affairs’.
Congress MLA Suresh Routray also welcomed Soumya for coming out against the government despite being in the ruling flank.
However, BJD lawmaker Prasant Muduli has a different opinion. Development is the main agenda of BJD. The picture of Odisha now shows how the State has achieved a remarkable transformation in the last 20 years.
(Edited By Sanjeev Kumar Patro)