Dikhyaa Mohanty 
For those who haven’t got a taste or feel of a fascist regime, democracy is a bit more than a yawning moment. In today’s time, running a government successfully for five years after being blessed with the massive mandate of the people is a Herculean job. And, yet, it is a thankless job.
To run the show in Odisha and be mindful of the sentiment of 4.2 crore discerning people- it’s easier said than done. Managing party’s affairs demands organizational acumen and galvanizing support at the grassroots. But running a government efficiently needs a different spin and agility. One can garner votes and vanquish the opponents with tailored strategizing in a high octane electoral campaign. But it is the legacy of good governance that creates a lasting imprint on the minds of the governed.
If we hark back to the incipient days of the eponymous Biju Janata Dal (BJD), it was constituted as a regional party with secular moorings. Hived off the parent Janata Dal, the BJD was led by a reluctant political novice Naveen Patnaik. Who could have imagined in 1999 that the BJD could sweep poll after poll and Patnaik reign as the longest serving Chief Minister of Odisha? It’s the performance that speaks louder than hyberbole. And, Patnaik has vindicated it in every term of governance.
“The lesser you speak, the more you connect”, is his avowed motto. Despite a greenhorn in the political circuit, Naveen was quick in his learnings and has over the past two decades, successfully built a sustainable brand of ‘performance driven politics’.
The obdurate Coronavirus pandemic has not pressed the brakes on Odisha’s pace of progress. Thanks to the vision of the charismatic Chief Minister and his able lieutenant VK Pandian, secretary of 5T initiatives. Odisha seized the lead in preparedness for Covid pandemic. The state government leveraged the power of technology, using predictive analytics models to forecast cases and perform contact tracing.
That level of preparedness enabled the government to set up India’s first exclusive, state-of-the-art Covid-19 hospital in Bhubaneswar. Soon, more dedicated Covid hospitals came up. The state had anticipated a huge influx of migrant workers from other states and accordingly, scaled up its health infrastructure. Owing to its effective handling of the colossal, worldwide health crisis, Odisha earned a torrent of praise from all including the WHO that profusely hailed the state’s ‘Technology aided pandemic management’.
More recently, the Chief Minister announced that the bus terminal at Baramunda will be upgraded into an international terminal to be commissioned in 18 months at a cost of Rs 180 crore. Earlier, in a major infrastructure push, the Odisha Cabinet approved two mega drinking water projects in Bargarh at a cost of Rs 723 crore. The two projects are slated to benefit nearly 7.5 lakh people in six blocks of the district. The commitment of the two mega drinking water projects is in sync with Naveen’s pre-electoral promise of personally monitoring the development of Bijpeur constituency, a seat which he contested alongside his pocket borough Hinjili in 2019 elections.
Besides people centric measures, there has been no let-up in the route to an industrialized Odisha. Projects worth over Rs 4000 crore have been cleared during peak Covid, thus reaffirming the state’s commitment to fast-track economic growth. The state recently unveiled two transformative projects of its gold category PSU- Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) – Stockyard Management System (SMS) and Customer Information Management Service (CIMS). Both projects aided by niche technologies promise to launch a new epoch in Ease of Doing Business and align with the 5T (Technology, Transformation, Time, Teamwork & Transparency) governance framework.
What has set the Odisha government apart is its penchant to deliver seamless services to the citizens. This government led by the towering vision of a squeaky clean Chief Minister has never belied the expectations of his over four crore Odia brethren. More than schemes or programs, Patnaik is wedded to the sentiment of the people. His unwavering focus on transforming the destinations around the pious Lord Jagannath temple, Puri and the Lingraj temple in Bhubaneswar bears ample testimony to it. Ably driving the ‘Naveen juggernaut’ is his 5T secretary VK Pandian.
A quiet workaholic who prefers performance to empty rhetoric, Pandian is anchoring a revolution to the evolution of a progressive Odisha. When asked about his dogged efforts to script the transition, Pandian’s repartee is that he is committed and aligned with the vision and mission of his mentor, the Chief Minister. The duo are the ‘Awesome Twosome’ Odisha needs for a stellar future.
Article Written By Dibyajit Sahu
