Non-BJP but not anti-Modi: The curious case of being Naveen Patnaik

On Monday, senior Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Derek O’Brien accused Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik of siding with fascism, saying his Biju Janata Dal (BJD) was unofficially with the BJP. “Patnaik will not speak up about the treacherous situation in Manipur or the burning of 250 churches there,” O’Brien said.

Are these comments surprising? Well, yes and no.

Surprising, because only in March, West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC boss Mamata Banerjee met Naveen Patnaik as she looked to bolster the anti-BJP bloc ahead of the 2024 national polls when Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeks a third straight term.

Last month, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, another person out to unify India’s political Opposition, also met his Odisha counterpart with the same objective. Though, of course, there was no official word.

On June 23, leaders of about 20 opposition parties would be on one stage in Patna to display unity. During the show, the opposition leaders, many of them sparring with one another so far, would be identifying areas of consensus to jointly fight the ruling BJP in the 2024 national polls.

At the same time, Derek O’Brien’s comments are not really surprising.

This is because it’s now becoming clear that Naveen Patnaik, the longest-serving chief minister of Odisha, holding the post for over two decades, isn’t likely to attend the Patna conclave. But even that isn’t surprising.

He has projected himself to be equidistant from the two traditional national parties, the BJP and the Congress. The quiet satrap has often bailed out the BJP-led NDA in the past when Parliament saw contentious issues such as a no-trust motion, with his BJD, a non-BJP party, staging a walkout.

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However, what many see as a balancing act seems more like a political strategy. More recently, on May 27, Naveen Patnaik, only the third chief minister after Pawan Chamling and Jyoti Basu to win five consecutive terms in an Indian state, skipped a meeting of the NITI Aayog, a central government think tank, in Delhi.

He also missed the inauguration of the new Parliament building by PM Modi the next day. However, while opposition parties boycotted the inauguration, saying the President should have done the honours, the BJD chief sent its 21 MPs to the ceremony. Also, earlier that month, Patnaik had called on Modi as part of a "courtesy meeting" and later told journalists that the BJD would go it alone in the national polls "as it always has".

So, what’s behind the Naveen Patnaik phenomenon?

Author-journalist Ruben Banerjee, who has closely tracked his home state Odisha and Patnaik, said this is Naveen Patnaik’s political opportunism, which helps the BJP politically. “This so-called approach of being equidistant means nobody bothers him. There’s no interference. There are no threats. We know how leaders of other Opposition parties have been crying foul following raids by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED),” Banerjee told IndiaToday.in.

Two of the Delhi ministers under the AAP government, Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain, had to quit after being arrested by these two central agencies under the Modi government on charges of corruption. It's a setback also because party leader Arvind Kejriwal is a prime ministerial hopeful ahead of the 2024 national polls.

Three of the other aspirants, overtly or otherwise, for the top job—Congress’s Rahul Gandhi, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee of the TMC and her Telangana counterpart K. Chandrashekar Rao of the BRS—have also faced the heat. More recently, V. Senthil Balaji, a minister in Tamil Nadu, a state ruled by an anti-BJP party, the DMK, was arrested by the ED in a money-laundering case on June 14. It’s a long list.

Ruben Banerjee says the Odisha CM is a successful politician but he doesn’t have a pronounced ideological leaning. "He has always aligned with people in power at the Centre, be it Atal Bihari Vajpayee or Sonia Gandhi."

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And he doesn't have a bad equation with PM Modi?

“Naveen Patnaik has a very good equation with him. It allows him a free run in his state. His being equidistant only means he won’t take a sharp stand either for or against anyone. Tell me, how does it help him if he sides with, say, the TMC or the AAP or the Congress or all of them on one platform?” Banerjee said.

Naveen Patnaik was a classmate of Sanjay Gandhi and three years junior to Rajiv Gandhi. “But he has no prime ministerial ambitions,” said Ruben Banerjee, who has authored a book on Naveen Patnaik,

Naveen Patnaik entered politics after the death of his father, Biju Patnaik, a Janata Dal leader and former Odisha chief minister, and formed the Biju Janata Dal, named after him, in 1997.

He came to power in 2000 when the 1999 cyclone wrecked Odisha and the Congress government was shown to be incompetent in handling the calamity. People were devastated, there had to be a backlash.

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He also had, to his advantage, the legacy of his father, who was seen to have given the Odia people a lot of pride. Biju Patnaik had a towering personality, also literally, and he knew how to play to the gallery.

Naveen Patnaik won the 2000 Odisha polls with the BJP, a natural ally, given the Janata Dal’s birth on the plank of anti-Congressism. In the 2004 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP-led NDA (also comprising the BJD) lost, but Patnaik won another term as the state CM.

But during this tenure, friction between the BJD and the BJP began over several issues, including the activities of the Bajrang Dal, seen as a militant Sangh affiliate, during the 2007 anti-Christian riots in Kandhamal. Perhaps, there was also a fear that the BJP would grow at the cost of the BJD, a phenomenon seen more recently in states such as Maharashtra and Bihar.

In the run-up to the 2009 national polls, the BJD walked out of the NDA and did well. In Odisha, both state and Lok Sabha elections happen together. Patnaik's winning streak has continued till 2019.

Another senior journalist from Odisha, I. Mohapatra, told IndiaToday.in that Naveen Patnaik has had absolute control over the state, and he doesn’t want to lose it.

“He will do whatever it takes. He spent most of his early days outside of Odisha, but he now rarely leaves the state. When was the last time you heard he was on a foreign trip? He sacks non-performing and corrupt people just like that. He has a clean image but it’s also no secret that the writer-politician is a classy man,” said Mohapatra.

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