BJD Facing An Identity Crisis At The National Level

By Sandeep Sahu

Any praise from any quarters warms the cockles of the praise receiver. And when it comes from no less than the Prime Minister of the country, it is a positive cause for celebration. But as events in the Rajya Sabha on Monday showed, there are times when praise can also cause embarrassment.

As Prime Minister Narendra Modi waxed eloquent singing paeans to the ’exemplary’ restraint, discipline and respect for parliamentary displayed by the BJD in its conduct in the Upper House, the discomfiture was palpable. The eight members of the ruling party in Odisha must have felt terribly uneasy at the fulsome praise coming their way. Responding to the PM’s compliment later, senior leader Prasanna Acharya did make a feeble attempt to emphasise the point that notwithstanding the praise, the BJD reserved its right to protest on matters involving the state’s interests. But the damage had already been done by then.

The discomfiture in the Rajya Sabha on the occasion of its 250th year celebrations on Monday was symptomatic of the crisis of identity faced by the BJD at the national level. Technically, it is part of the Opposition. But as everyone knows only too well, it has sided with the ruling NDA in Parliament on every single issue since the new Lok Sabha came into being. Though a KCR here or a Kamal Hasan there does keep calling on the BJD supremo once in a while, the Opposition as a whole has long given up on the BJD as a present or prospective ally after its repeated overtures for some kind of an understanding were spurned by Naveen Patnaik. For all practical purposes, the BJD is now an adjunct of the ruling dispensation at the Centre.

A closer look at the way the Naveen Patnaik government has functioned since winning an unprecedented fifth successive election in May this year makes it clear that the BJD boss has taken several leaves out of the Modi book. Examples of this are too numerous to be counted here. But just two would suffice. Suddenly, one finds Naveen emulating Modi’s penchant to play the head master, now giving sermons to his legislators on how to carry themselves in legislature, now advising them to lead an austere life. And in a case of being more loyal than the king himself, the Naveen government went overboard from the word go in implementing the amended Motor Vehicles Act, which provides for steep fines for violation of traffic rules, even as BJP ruled states took their time – and even reduced the fines in some cases. The government relented only after the anger boiled over into the streets.

The growing bonhomie between the two estranged partners has, in fact, been in evidence since immediately after the bitterly fought elections, even before the results had come in. The occasion was the PM’s visit to the state to see for himself the damage wrought by Cyclone Fani in the first week of May. That it was not a case of a fertile mind going berserk became abundantly clear when the BJD, for reasons that are yet to be adequately explained, decided to back the BJP nominee Ashwini Vaishaw in the Rajya Sabha election despite having the numbers to win the seat hands down. It followed this eyebrow-raising act up by backing every single Bill moved by the Modi government in the eventful monsoon session of the Parliament. Analysts attribute the selection of the mild Pradipta Nayak as the BJP legislature party leader over the aggressive Jaynarayan Mishra as part of a ‘deal'. Some observers even see in the embarrassment over the Gandhi leaflet prepared for school children saying the Father of the Nation died ‘accidentally’ yet another instance of the influence the Modi dispensation is wielding on Naveen Patnaik 5.0.

By now, there is no room left for any doubt that the two sides – the BJD and BJP – have decided to bury the hatchet and work out a relationship of mutual benefit. For all one knows, they could also be preparing the ground for revival of their 11-year old alliance that was abruptly and unilaterally severed by Naveen Patnaik in the run up to the 2009 elections.

The massive mandate for Modi in the last general elections must have convinced Naveen that there is nothing to be gained, politically or otherwise, by being at loggerheads with the government headed by him. He must have also realized that the ‘communal’ tag the Opposition sought to label the BJP with during the elections did not cut much ice with the people. In any case, the BJP is not any more ‘communal’ today than it was during their long lasting dalliance from 1998 to 2009. [This writer, for one, has never believed the utter crap sought to be sold to the people by a few BJD apologists that Naveen parted ways with the BJP because of the ‘communal’ role that the latter played during the Kandhamal riots. The riots certainly provided a worthy excuse to cut off the alliance. But the real reason was that the BJD was convinced – or was convinced by the late Pyari Mohan Mohapatra – that it could win on its own.]

Conversely, the election results must have convinced Modi and Amit Shah that the BJP must keep its ambition of ruling Odisha on hold till Naveen is alive and electioneering. So, why not go by the dictum ‘If you can’t beat them, join them’ and have him on their side instead?

While the present arrangement is working just fine for both sides, the discomfiture of the BJD – which finds itself in a strange situation where it is neither in the opposition nor part of the NDA – will continue till it formally joins the ruling alliance at the Centre.

(DISCLAIMER: This is an opinion piece. The views expressed are the author’s own and have nothing to do with OTV’s charter or views. OTV does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.)