Odisha Politics: Who is this Uncle Never Failing to Win Over the People through Vote Power?

by An Observer

The following article reached us quite sometime back but could not be used earlier due to unavoidable reasons. It is being published now when the Uncle (Pyari Mohan Mohapatra) has shot into national prominence for having reportedly designed a revolt in the ruling BJD in Odisha that he later denied.

Who is this Uncle in Odisha politics? Controlling the organisation, internal workings and dynamics of the BJD party? Guiding the party supremo Naveen Patnaik? And architec-ting party’s steady growth and sustained victory in the State and parliamentary elections? Keeping a tight grip on party MLAs, MPs and organisa-tional functionaries right from the Panchayat to Parliament so much so that no political events and activities can take place without his knowledge and prior approval. The party looks up to him for his advice and wisdom not only to manage internal crisis but also when it comes to forming a political strategy to combat the Opposition or putting up a political show and capitalising on news and issues and inspiring people to be a part of it and get political mileage for the party. Nobody else in the BJD party, or in any other party for that matter, can match his wit and performance. The BJD’s thumping and unprecedented success in the recent Pan-chayat elctions and its moving into new terri-tories held earlier by the Opposition speaks of the Uncle’s charismatic salesmanship of his party’s ideas and programmes. It, in fact, is an incredible performance of a super political brain.

The Uncle is known not only for his qualities of leadership, his dictatorial ways of putting things in order, his arrogance, unpardoning attitude to acts of omissions and commissions of the party leaders, he is also known for his love and understanding of the people and their problems. His great ambition has always been to love the country and his own State, think for the State, work for the State, inspire people to work and fight for the State for any injustice done to it. A strong-minded patriot since his school days, he always upholds the cause of his State and his people. He knows how to respond to the expectations of the people and apply healing touches to their wounds. He connects himself to the poor and deprived and would prevail on the party to prioritise the provision of food, shelter and means of livelihood. He insisted on the supply of assured rice at an affordable rate of Rs 2 a kg. He knows that is the only way to bring the party close to the poor and work for the people’s well-being and get the people’s political support for the party both in the short- and medium-term. A friend of the poor and the underprivileged, he enjoys the love and respect of all the communities including the minorities simply for the fact that he always looks at issues from a humanitarian perspective and never from any parochial and communal angle.

He knows that politics and ideology, to reach the people, should have the strength of economics. By combining politics with a new approach to Odisha’s development that addresses the needs of the poor and yet takes care of industry and capital in the market, he could very successfully create a durable political equilibrium for the BJD party in the State that no party experienced before. The deadly combination of political control of the party with the State’s thrust on development has yielded rich dividends for the party in terms of electoral victories. It gives hope to the people and fashions dreams in many a mind. And to that extent, he succeeds in getting a distinct identity for the party. The party today looks to the Uncle for his practical insights and acknowledges that without his contributions the party would not have emerged as the single most important political player in the State. He enjoys a commanding presence in the BJD party and therefore in the political arena of the entire State and the nation. People in Odisha wonder at the magnetic and yet deterring personality of this man. They also feel mystified when they find him combining the spark of patriotism with the business of politics and the craft of empowering the masses with the accurate calculation of political gains and strategic victories.

Unlike Other Politicians, the Uncle Stands Out in Many Ways

As an Indian Administrative Service (IAS, now retired) officer he is respected for his honesty and integrity. Always ready to stand up before the authorities for his convictions and suffer the consequences, including humiliating transfers and postings like a long spell in the Dandakaranya Project at Koraput, he moved on in his chartered path. An intelligent man that he is, he knew how to turn this punishment posting into a turning point in his life. He created a permanent space for himself there in the hearts of millions of the inhabitant tribals dedicating his time for their development and participation in the mains-tream of life. The more he suffered because of political vendetta, the more he grew in strength and stature and in the process came close to the heart of the people who always yearn to see such powerful personalities in public life. He is impersonal yet loves to help the poor people who come to him for justice. He is functional yet there is a human touch to it. He is critical of bureaucrats yet he could be chosen to become the Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister of the State. As a part of the system he knows the strengths and weaknesses of the State machinery and the functioning of the Indian bureaucracy that very often fails to appreciate and understand the anguish and aspirations of the people.

Who is this man? A Brahmin by birth and born in a highly influential family, he is a tall, lean, highly educated, very proud and arrogant man not caring for social practices that dehumanise men, not caring for others’ feelings that may hinder his work and limit his space of freedom. At a young age and while still in the school, he joined the Communist Party of India and started as a radical Communist and would love to join the protest marches holding the party flag. But the boy had a strategic vision about his own future and did not wish to remain confined to anything that would limit his activities and endless urge to work for the larger benefits of the society. A voracious reader himself, he studied and studied and completed his post-graduate degree in Political Science from a prestigious university of the country, competed successfully for both the IAS and IPS, and was posted in his home State. This was in fact a godsend opportunity for him to serve the State and understand its people, rich and poor, haves and have-nots, the wise and the fools, the educated and the uneducated, the literates; and, above all, the existing socio-economic and power structure.

He lived a simple life but had the benefit of homespun wisdom that came to him after he worked, as a young boy, with the great leaders of his time. He remained a strong character and always with great thoughts for his people and his State. He inspired his young colleagues and became a role-model for many of them. He could rise and fall from grace but never allowed anything to disturb his peace and tranquillity and distract him from his goal of serving the State. And then the time came he was waiting for. He was invited to join the newly formed BJD party, the party that was named after his master. He accepted the invitation, entered politics in a big way and became the unofficial advisor of the party President. His earlier achievements in public life had already carved out a space and an image for this man in society.

The newly formed party, the BJD, was to fight the elections against the largest political party in the country working under the leadership of great national leaders. The new leader of the party, who is very cautious and reserved in nature and had always lived outside politics had nobody to look to in politics except to the man who served his father so loyally and faithfully and whom he holds in deep regard and whom he affectionately calls Uncle from an early age. He could put faith in the Uncle to guide him in politics and protect him in political turmoil. And why not? Who else can provide the scale of management and political action needed to fight the elections against a strong and powerful national party? Who else has friends in other parties and the political wisdom to bail him out from challenging situations? Who else can curb and control the ascendancy to power by the other ambitious politicians of the party and the State? It is the Uncle and Uncle alone who can do so. The Uncle accepted the challenge. The immediate question before the Uncle was: What is to be done not only to avert political disaster for the party but to bring it back to power to complete the unfinished agenda of the man, his leader, who always cherished great dreams for Odisha and the Odias?

He has the killer’s instincts. But his approach to political campaigning remains the common-sense approach. He speaks simple words that people understand. He speaks their language and offers them the dreams that touch their hearts so that they should help the party to grow and come back to power with a leader who is their own and not one imposed on them from the Delhi Durbar as happens with other parties. Free from any remote control from Delhi, he would work to deliver them all the good things promised to them by their dear departed leader, Biju Patnaik, and in no way compromise the identity and pride (swabhiman) of the State.

It was a masterstroke of the man who brought landslide victory for the party. Since then he has been giving new policies and new directions to the BJD party. His ideas work and work miracu-lously with the people. And people respond overwhelmingly by reposing their faith in the leader and the leader respects his Uncle and looks up to him from time to time for his guid-ance. In politics, he combines State issues with national politics and keeps on hammering the idea of discrimination and negligenceof the State by the Centre, of the Centre’s policies towards the State in using its mineral resources and paying it low royalty and its unfair attitude in releasing grants to the State when it suffers from natural calamities. His voice may convey regional politics, but that also represents an evidence of a rising trend of feeling downgraded by the Centre vis-à-vis other States in matters that impact its economy and affect the welfare of its people.

Decades ago, Odisha craved for an identity. Now it has become a chosen place for the indus-trialists, people of real estate, housing, construc-tion, and social entrepreneurs in education and health. The success story continues in an unen-ding manner and may continue for a long time through the sheer strength of his ideas and the party’s good performance vis-à-vis the unins-piring and lacklustre political show of other parties. Many have attempted to be like him. But in vain. He remains an unpredictable quantity and invents his own ideas to serve the party and take it close to the people and draw them increasingly close to the party. He is no more just a retired bureaucrat. He is a seasoned politician, an MP in the Rajya Sabha. He is no longer invisible. He is rising and is on the ascendancy. That leaves him with a few friends and many enemies.

Who is this Uncle then whose name always relates to political success?

He is Pyari Mohan Mohapatra, the BJD MP in Rajya Sabha.