No apologies

Politicians are known for arriving late at news meets. BJD leader and school and mass education minister Debi Prasad Mishra is no different. On Monday, he kept Bhubaneswar’s press corps waiting for nearly half an hour at the party headquarters where a media briefing on the Mahanadi water dispute was scheduled to take place. Two of Mishra’s colleagues, former minister P.K. Deb and former Speaker Kishore Mohanty, waited for him and tried to keep the impatient scribes engaged in informal talk. However, Mishra was not at all apologetic about the delay and began addressing the gathering without any preamble after taking his seat on the high table. 

Blame game 

Under attack from the Congress and the BJP on the Mahanadi water sharing issue, the BJD also seems to have a grouse against a section of the local media. Facing a barrage of hostile questions on the issue at a news conference the other day, BJD spokesperson P.K. Deb gave vent to his party’s feelings blaming the media and saying that the media was not supporting the state’s cause. This, however, did not stop mediapersons from interrogating him and two other party leaders present on the occasion. “The media is there to report facts and not take sides. That is the job of politicians,” quipped a journalist.

Crucial letters

BJD keeps referring to the chief minister’s letters to the Prime Minister and central agencies such as the Central Water Commission (CWC) over the Mahanadi water dispute. The party, on the other hand, has consistently denied having received some crucial letters reportedly sent to it by the CWC and the Chhattisgarh government on the issue. Making a mocking reference to BJD’s claims in this regard at the all-party meeting called by the leader of the Opposition on the Mahanadi dam row, former MP Soumya Ranjan Patnaik said it was surprising that while so many letters written by the chief minister reached their destination, return letters failed to reach the Odisha government. He then suggested, apparently in jest, that someone should make inquiries with the postal department as to why crucial letters on Mahanadi addressed to the state were disappearing mysteriously. 

Slip of tongue

There was an interesting event at chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s inauguration of flood and cyclone shelters in 17 districts through video-conferencing from the state secretariat on Friday. After dedicating the shelters to the people at the click of a mouse, the chief minister, along with his ministerial colleagues and bureaucrats, watched revenue and disaster management minister Bijoyshree Routray interact with some of the district sarpanchs. It was during this interaction that one of the sarpanchs made a slip of tongue that evoked peals of laughter. “Mukhyamantrinka apacheshta jogu eha sambhav heichi, ame tanku dhanyabad deuchu (This has been possible due to the ill-efforts of the chief minister who we thank),” blurted out this sarpanch from Khurda district, leading to uproarious laughter. 

Balancing game 

The appointment of Patnagarh MLA K.V. Singh Deo as the BJP legislature party leader has helped redress the balance of power within the state unit of the party. Ever since Basant Panda was elected the state BJP president, there was talk of excessive dominance of his group and his patron Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan in party affairs. So much so that some senior leaders, who resented the growing power of this group, had begun to distance themselves from the party. 
With the intra-party feud worsening, Singh Deo, who earlier headed the state unit of the party and is perceived to be close to Panda’s rival faction, was reluctant to accept the post of legislature party leader. But now that he has been anointed, the monopoly of Panda, Pradhan and their associates might come to an end in the BJP. 

FOOTNOTE

Inflated ego

Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee president Prasad Harichandan’s ego seems to be costing him dear. His ego-driven decision to stay away from the all-party meeting called by leader of the Opposition Narasingha Mishra on the Mahanadi issue has shown him in poor light. The general opinion is that Harichandan, who had begun his innings as the OPCC chief with slogans of “consensus” and “team work”, is increasingly behaving like a faction leader which is not in the interest of the party. “It is because of this attitude of senior leaders that the party is unable to cash in on major issues and continues to lose ground in the state. Prima donna politics is not going to help the Congress,” said a senior leader.