BJP in Orissa does not seem to have any real plans for Orissa; its only goal seems to be to teach a lesson to BJD
Elections 2009 March 28th. 2009, 8:05pmThe early indication is that BJP in Orissa has really no plans for being in a winning coalition and do something for Orissa. It seems its only goal is to teach a lesson to BJD and hope that there is a hung assembly and that BJD comes crawling back to BJP. If this is the case, then this agenda of BJP (in addition to its alleged communal agenda) must be exposed to the fullest and BJP be made a non-entity in Orissa. (Many of the people in Orissa BJP are good people, and hopefully they will then form a seprate party without the alleged communal agenda of BJP and its Sangh parivaar.)
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March 29th, 2009 at 6:53 am
What you are thinking is absolutely right. BJP has no intention to do something for Odisha.
March 29th, 2009 at 6:55 am
The performance of BJD Ministers was very poor in the coalition Govt. compared to BJP Ministers. The CM was heading the Home and irrigation Dept which was a total failure. Health was with BJD again a failure combined with charges of scam. The Excise Ministry was with BJD and many Ministers were changed. The Basic Education was with BJD and the Minister was charged with favouring his kin. Contrast this with the Industry, Higher Education, Civil Supplies, Revenue and Transport held by BJP Ministers and they have performed better. It is natural for a political party to engage in some political talk as well which the BJP is doing by attacking the BJD and the BJD is doing by suddenly discovering its secular credentials (I haven’t heard Mr Patnaik opening his mouth post Godhra and it his Party which claimed that more than religion the Kandhamal violence was a caste conflict). Suppose BJP has no representative from orissa and NDA comes to power, what will happen to the state? May be the same what happened when Congress throughed a bread on the hungry of Orissa by giving a lone Minister of State Rank to the state compared to 14 ministers from TN and 8 each from MAHA and BIH. In my view BJP should be the choice for the parliamentary polls and BJD for the Assembly elections for Orissa electorate.
March 29th, 2009 at 10:26 am
No minister did anything or had a major say in anything. For example, the industry minister was not even invited to many industry ministry activities. Most work was done by the bureaucracy and approved by CM, sometime with the involvement of Pyari babu.
For NDA to come to power it will need support of regional parties and thus if there is a good contingent of BJD MPs, Orissa would be ok.
March 29th, 2009 at 4:03 pm
You are right that Orissa BJP’s sole aim in this election is to defeat BJD & in my opinion they may look right looking at the circumstances.
* BJD suddenly becomes advertiser of secularism!!If it really was, then why didn’t it quit immediately after Kandhamal riots.
*BJD was formed and it sailed on the miniwave of Bajpai in 98 & 99 General election. Is n’t it?So it took the help of BJP when it required. Now when BJP required the help of BJD,why did it suddenly dessert him? Can’t you term it as betrayal.
*BJP was & is very open about its policy regarding Hindutva & Nationalism. It supports an ideology which many people term it as communal. But what about those parties who use the word Secular for only vote bank politics. If that wouldn’t have the case, BJD should never have inducted a guy for his religious affiliation who maligned Orissa’s Image.
*The economic policy of both parties & also congress looks similar. But what about left parties & NCP? If he really cared about corruption, how could he still aligning with those people who he removed from ministries. (Prasanta Nanda,Amar Satapathy).What about POSCO & Vedanta University you always have been advocating about after BJD aligns with Left Parties ?
* The so called Chanakya of Orissa Politics may proved wrong once voting ends.BJP being a cadre based party controls over certain % of votes which will always stick with it. How will MR Pyari going to do about it. In 1996, it was 8%, how bad it may do; it still can get 12-14% votes.
*BJD argues that BJP lost its support at ground level which is right & only because it enjoyed power for first times & its leaders turned blind towards workers. But result of few urban election can not be the full picture of state knowing the fact that Orissa has one of the lowest Urban population in the country.
* Finally BJP required BJD in state to win but BJD required BJP for itself for not to loose. In this scenario BJP certainly not going to win many seats but it is there to dent the prospects of BJD.Who will benifit?Congress !! Who else?
*What will BJD say about its pact with JMM? Why did it take its support & now crying foul??
Finally your idea about BJP local leaders forming another party sounds absolutely imature.If you look at the history, Break away factions of Congress & Janata Dal have survived but Never of BJP.SP,RJD,JDU,JDS,BJD are al from Janata Family & still surviving. Similarly NCP,Trinmul Congress from INC. But can u tell me any such example of BJP? MR Baghela & Miss Uma Bharati tried & failed miserably. The reason is the cadre & ideology which is very difficult to separate. By the way do we really need one more Regional party?
April 2nd, 2009 at 1:23 pm
I used to regularly follow your blogs since the past 2 years but it sounds disappointing when someone learned and educated like you promotes regional parties rather than national parties for Lok Sabha. Naveen brought in some industrialization to Orissa but has failed miserably to maintain the law & order in the state with Maoists growing in the southern districts of Orissa and posing a threat to the stability and security of Orissa. In one of your articles you demanded that railways should expand railway network in the KBK region to aid development and connectivity with other regions, BJP has promised to do that if it comes to power.
On the divisive politics front let me tell you that though BJP is Hindu biased, all its policies and development agenda are irrespective of caste or religion. Congress and Left on the other hand believe in minority politics and woo minority voters with reservation based on caste and religion. They always want to tag the people of India as AAM ADMI. No Indian is AAM ADMI, every citizen is special with equal rights to resources of the country. I was shocked to learn that BJD broke the coalition with BJP and decided to go with Left, NCP and JMM. If left was favourable to development then W.B. and Kerala would have been one of the developed industrialized states with good job opportunities. Most of the Leftist leaders don’t support development and industrialization. When BJD decided to part ways with the BJP one of the MLA from CPI(M) said and I quote “Finally Naveen realized that Orissa does not need POSCO”. JMM wanted three districts from Orissa and one from W.B. to form a greater Jharkhand.
On the communal politics front, please go thru the manifesto of Congress you will find a lot of policies for muslims but none for other minority religions like Sikhs, Jains or Buddhists. Congress openly supported illegal Bangladeshi immigrants for votes in Assam, Left also promoted illegal immigration in Bengal for the same cause whereas BJP manifesto has no policies or development agenda biased towards one particular religion. Let me make it clear that BJP is not a party of Barbarians like the media is projecting but it has a lot of good, strong and capable leaders who have a vision for the country.
I love my state Orissa too, but as responsible citizens we should first think of the nation as a whole, development of India as a whole and not of a particular community, religion, region or caste. The nation needs people like you to support its cause.