Book Review: Naveen Patnaik by Ruben Banerjee

What I liked about Naveen Patnaik's biography by Ruben Banerjee is that it is well written & takes a balanced view - praising him without glossing over his shortcomings. It is engaging with interesting facts & trivia about the longest serving Chief Minister of Odisha who prefers to read out Odia speeches written in the Roman script

When Naveen entered politics in Odisha, he was trying to reach out to the people of his native land whose rusticity he did not share. Yet, as the son of Odisha’s legendary politician, he had been anointed by fate and destiny as the desperate state’s only possible saviour. Fed up with the games played by discredited politicians, many Odias welcomed Naveen despite his lack of Odia.

According to a 1994 law, written and spoken knowledge of Odia is a must for contesting Gram Panchayat elections. It was Naveen's luck that the knowledge of the local language wasn't mandatory for the state's highest elected position

He has been called a minimalist & a "smiling assassin" - Naveen has so far shown the door to some forty-six of his ministers, his booze buddies -  hotelier & party veteran Dilip Ray, A U Singh Deo, industrialist turned politician Baijayant 'Jay' Panda (his wife runs OTV, Odisha's most popular TV channel) and even his long time mentor, Pyari Mohan Mohapatra, a retired bureaucrat who once served as secretary to Biju Patnaik when he was CM

Described as the Chanakya of Odisha politics, Pyari Mohan Mohapatra called the shots from his home at 111, Saheed Nagar till he fell of with Naveen & outsmarted in 2011

Naveen was the classmate of Sanjay Gandhi at Doon School. His pet name is Pappu & he can't drive a car. He is a chain smoker who likes Dunhill cigarettes & Famous Grouse whisky. He ran a boutique called Psychedelhi from the premises of Oberoi hotel & his clientele included the fabled Beatles. His circle of friends straddled the globe and his int­erests included books and films, landing him a small role in Merchant Ivory’s 1988 adventure film The Deceivers, which had Pierce Brosnan and Saeed Jaffrey in the cast. He has authored three coffee-table books.

Naveen's parents Gyan & Biju Patnaik were trained pilots.

Biju Patnaik built & named his sprawling home, Naveen Niwas just beyond Bhubaneswar airport. Forest Park, the fashionable neighbourhood next to Naveen Niwas is home to top bureaucrats

When asked about his simplicity, Naveen is reported to have told Vir Sanghvi - "I have seen the most beautiful things in people's houses. To love beauty, you don't need to own it. You must just appreciate it."

Naveen maintains a low-key but is image conscious. His "Mr Clean" image has got him elected three times as Member of Parliament, four times as Chief Minister of Odisha. Naveen has been elected to the assembly from Hinjilicut constituency in Ganjam District. He has never been in the Opposition or spent time in political wilderness. His silence is considered his eloquence. His critics say that his biggest achievement is that he has not done anything that is spectacularly wrong

The Chief Minister relies heavily on the bureaucracy. Influential bureaucrats reportedly control everything from the CM's office on the third floor of the state secretariat.

As Collector of Ganjam, V Kathikeyan Pandian impressed Naveen so much  by fetching it the best-performing district in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme that he drafted him into the Chief Minister's Office. Pandian is married to an Odia IAS officer.

When Cyclone Phailin struck in 2013, only 21 lives were lost compared to the death of over 10,000 people in the previous supercyclone due to the CM's Mission Zero Casualty

Naveen and Jayalalithaa were supposed to be friends and shared a liking for populist schemes commonly called sops

Billed as the single biggest foreign investment in India, the proposed 12 billion tonne steel plant of South Korean steel giant POSCO at Paradip to be built at a cost of Rs 52,000 crore was marketed as a showpiece of the Naveen Government. Due to local resistance, the project had to be abandoned

The Biju Janata Dal party symbol is conch - one of the symbols of Lord Jagannath; others are mace, lotus & wheel

BJD party constitution stipulates that "party members should abstain from alcoholic drinks & drugs"

The electoral battle in 2019 will see the 72 year old CM fight 48 year old Dharmendra Pradhan of BJP

The book has many funny anecdotes too -

With Odia names being Greek and Latin to him, there were moments of embarrassment, too.  During a visit to Chandikhol, the town along the national highway halfway between Bhubaneswar and Balasore, he mistakenly referred to it as 'Chadikhol' (meaning 'open your underpants') in the middle of a public address.

“Mere pitaji ko Thakurmunda bahut pyara tha” (My father loved Thakurmunda very much) he said softly into the microphone after the perfunctory namaskar. Naveen spoke in his gruff voice, but its effect was electrifying.   The residents of Thakurmunda were ecstatic that Biju Babu had told his son about their town in the back of beyond. Whoops of collective joy erupted and the rally site resonated with chants of ‘Naveen Patnaik zindabad’. Another rehearsed line followed: “Mere pitaji ne bola tha beta Thakurmunda zaroor jana.” (My father had said, ‘Son, you must definitely go to Thakurmunda.’) The crowds were del­irious with joy that the place of their birth was so dear to Biju Babu—even if his son addressed them in Hindi.
The same routine was repeated in Kendrapara ... “Mere pitaji ko Kendrapara bahut pyara tha”, Naveen said when his turn came to address the rally.  When the claimant to the chief minister’s chair presented his second line, “Mere pitaji ne bola tha beta Kendrapara zaroor jana,” the crowd went berserk and the police struggled to control the sea of humanity crushing against the barricades.
Listening to Naveen narrate what his father had told him, Satyabadi replacing Thakurmunda and Kendrapara, the loc­als felt more pride welling inside them. Their response was much the same as at the earlier two stopovers. Biju Babu’s heir had them virtually eating out of his hand.

Biju Patnaik's unfulfilled dreams were a constant theme of BJD over successive terms. A local activist asked the Government for an answer under Right to Information (RTI) on what Biju Babu's dreams meant. The CM's office gave a matter-of-fact reply: no documents existed on Biju babu's dreams.

The author also provides a ringside view of Odisha & denizens -

"Odisha is a rich state where poor people live" - Biju Patnaik

Odisha is part of the BIMAROU, denoting India's most sick and underdeveloped states, which consist of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh

With 40% of its population consisting of STs (23%) and SCs (17%) - poverty rules the mostly rural state.

Madhusudan Das led the movement for the creation of a separate Odisha state. Odisha was the first state to be created on linguistic lines in 1936. The importance of language diminished considerably since that time. The state's large ST population does not necessarily speak Odia.

Caste equations or regional considerations has never really played a role in electoral politics of Odisha unlike in many Indian states like Karnataka or AP. Naveen belongs to the Karana (Kayasth) caste which accounts for less that 4% of the state's population (of 4.5 crore). Other backward classes (OBCs) and Chasas or farmers are the numerically dominant castes in Odisha.

Odisha has had 4 CMs out of a total of 14 from the numerically insignificant Karana caste. Interestingly, Odisha also had a Bengali Chief Minister, Biren Mitra.

Odisha now is a surplus state in rice production and third largest contributor to India's rice granary

According to the National Family Welfare Survey, the percentage of women owning land is  63.5% compared to the national average of 38.5% indicating healthy women empowerment. Women Self Help Groups (SHG) are Naveen's biggest political capital.

Aska is famous for Blackbucks.

Also see: Biographies, Memoirs and Autobiographies that I've enjoyed reading