BJP Consolidating Political Gains in Odisha | Suranjita Ray

The BJP government of Mohan Charan Majhi in Odisha is making all possible attempts to consolidate its electoral victory in 2024 after almost a quarter of a century. In order to weaken the long-standing credentials of the Naveen Patnaik-led BJD government, which ruled the state for around two and a half decades and at present is a strong opposition, the Chief Minister has renamed several welfare schemes particularly named after Late Biju Patnaik.

Although the rights-based approach, as well as the campaign for an inclusive society, has appealed to the vast majority that the government is pro-poor, it is pertinent to understand if the regime change and its campaign of ‘double engine sarkar,’ alongside changing the names of schemes, will change the everyday living conditions of the people in Odisha. Will its development policies, in particular inviting global investments to effectively use the rich resources of the state bridge the increasing regional disparities in the state? It is critical to understand if the promises of a ‘Viksit Odisha’ by the Majhi-led BJP government will address concerns of persisting hunger, malnutrition, unemployment, and distress migration for certain sections despite the economic growth and decline in the multidimensional poverty in Odisha.

Competing to Win the Trust of the Voters

Several studies on elections across the states in India find that the contesting political parties compete to win the trust of the voters by promising cash transfers and cash benefits by offering and distributing freebies. Today, the majority of targeted voters also look forward to such short-term relief measures rather than long-term achievements in terms of improving their living conditions. Therefore, in the long run, the problems of unemployment, poverty, hunger, and distress migration persist alongside increasing economic growth as well as development.

To counter the BJD government’s decisions, the BJP government has signed an MoU to implement Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY) in convergence with Odisha’s own health assurance scheme. It replaced the popular ‘Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana’ (BSKY) with Gopabandhu Jana Arogya Yojana (GJAY) to provide a cover of Rs 5 lakh per annum with an additional Rs 5 lakh for women. An outlay of Rs 500 crore was proposed for the AB-PMJAY, while Rs 3,056 crore was earmarked for the state sector scheme in the Budget 2024-25. The BJP government has renamed the popular schemes like Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation (KALIA) as the ’CM-KISAN’ programme (parallel to the Centre’s PM-KISAN scheme), ‘Biju Setu Yojana’ as ‘Setu Bandhan Yojana,’ ‘Make in Odisha’ as ‘Utkarsh Utkal,’ and ‘Ama Odisha Nabin Odisha’ as ’Vikasit Gaon Vikasit Odisha.’

The present government aims to replace the BJD’s bureaucratically designed model of governance based on 5T (Teamwork, Transparency, Technology, Time, and Transformation) and its focus on ‘New Odisha’ (Odisha Economic Survey, 2022-23: 24) with a model designed by political leadership at the Centre. Keeping in mind the national aspiration of Viksit Bharat@2047 that aims to transform India into a developed nation by 2047, marked by sustainable growth, technological innovation, and social inclusivity, the Majhi-led BJP government has drafted the Odisha Vision 2036 and to make Odisha a developed state by 2036 when the state’s formation will complete 100 years. The government announced that it targets a 500 billion dollar economy by 2036.

The Chief Minister has promised to transform Odisha into a Utkarsh Odisha (prosperous Odisha) in the two-day ‘Utkarsh Odisha Investors’ Conclave’ on the 28th and 29th of January 2025 in Bhubaneshwar. He stated that the conclave was historic as 145 MOUs were signed to invest 17 lakh crores. The two-day visit by Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam on 17th and 18th January 2025 was also significant as it was the first country partner of Utkarsh Odisha: Make-in-Odisha Conclave. Odisha has signed 8 MOUs with different Singaporean entities that include skill development, new courses in semiconductors, sustainable energy technology, green hydrogen and ammonia, industrial park development, sustainable InsureTech, and city development planning. The Chief Minister has also announced recently that JSW Group and South Korean steel major POSCO will jointly set up a mega steel plant in Keonjhar, his home district.

The effort of the government to make Odisha one of the preferred destination for global investors is not new. It reminds us of the convincing attempts of the reconfiguration of state-market negotiation that has seen increasing paradoxes of development in the state. A higher economic growth in the past failed to do away with deprivation of basic rights of certain sections of society. This has brought many contentious issues to the fore.

Paradoxes of Development

While the last decade has seen Odisha as one of the fastest-growing economies with a growth rate of 7.8 per cent compared to 7.1 per cent at all-India levels in 2022-23 (Odisha Economic Survey (OSE), 2022-23) and an estimated growth rate of 8.5 per cent in 2023-24 (OSE Report, 2023-24), the paradoxes of development have become more conspicuous as the south-western districts remain economically underdeveloped and poor despite being rich in natural resources [1]. Though there has been a decline in poverty from 29.34 per cent in 2015-16 to 15.68 per cent in 2019-21 (India National Multidimensional Poverty: A Progress Review- 2023, NITI Aayog) and a further decline to 11.07 per cent in 2022–23 with 102.78 lakh people escaping poverty (NITI Aayog), the percentage of poverty is higher for districts in the southwestern region such as Malkangiri, Koraput, Nabarangpur, Rayagada, Gajapati, Kandhamal, Kalahandi, and Nuapada [2]. It is important to see if in the near future the BJP government can bridge the above regional disparities.

Despite the growth in the economy and decline in poverty in the past, several studies find that the benefits of growth and prosperity have remained confined to the urban cities of the coastal region of Odisha. The dominant class, invariably from the upper caste in the coastal region, has largely hoarded the benefits of development. It is significant to understand that the districts with a high share of Scheduled Tribe (ST) population record significantly low levels of development in health, basic amenities, education, economics, and overall social well-being (Odisha Development Report, 2020). While districts in the coastal and the industrial belt of north western regions such as Khorda, Cuttack, Jagatsignhpur, Ganjam, and Puri have ranked higher in basic amenities, the southwestern districts, namely Baudh, Nabarangpur, Kandhamal, Mayurbhanj, Subarnapur, and Malkanagiri, have ranked much lower (Ibid).

The government data shows severe malnutrition among children in many of the southwestern districts Rayagada (645), Kalahandi (636), and Malkangiri (570). Malnutrition also persists in the coastal districts of Ganjam (558), and Balasore (536). The death of two tribal women in Kandhamal district in November 2024 due to the consumption of mango kernel gruel has brought back horrific memories of similar experiences in 2001. In fact, the living conditions for the marginalised communities have not changed irrespective of whichever political party governs the state. The narratives of the starved contest the systematised understandings of hunger that suppress, conceal, and silence the genealogy of their subjugation and oppression. It provides insights to understand starvation as sites of continuous oppression, conflict and paradox that not only threaten one’s life but also fail to generate sufficient livelihood. The process of being starved does not start with the biological collapse but a decline in the socio-economic conditions, which need not always culminate in mortality.

Several studies on the causes of farmers’ suicide in Odisha reveal that the intensified crop loss, indebtedness/debt trap, acute poverty and illness, alienation of land and landlessness, land transfers, and distress sell of land to the money lenders and landlords are important determining factors for generating and sustaining conditions of deprivation and distress of the farmers. While an increasing number of farmers’ suicides in the recent past that aroused public outrage, we saw complicity with the incompetent state. Farmers’ suicides are not occurrences that are abrupt and unforeseen. They need to be explained in terms of their continuity.

We have also seen how the development projects of the state to secure industrial and economic growth have handed over vast areas of natural resources such as mining, fertile land, water, and forest reserves to the corporate sector and international finance capital. The state has not shirked from using its repressive force against the people protesting to protect their livelihood resources, whether it is the betel vines in Baliapal and Dhinkia, the bauxite mountains of Gandhamardhan, Kashipur, and Niyamagiri, the waters of Chilika, or the forests of Narayanpatna. The increasing coercive response of the state converted these areas into constant conflict zones. Besides, the Naxalites have persuaded in several districts such as Koraput, Nabarangapur, Malkangiri, Rayagada, Gajapati, Ganjam, Sundargarh, Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar, Sambalpur, Kandhamal, Deogarh, Jharsuguda, and Jajpur.

Preventing such crises in the future should become a prior responsibility and not a prerogative of the state. While it is too early to conclude that the change in government has failed to resolve the persisting problems, it is important to address the underlying causes of the problems and take adequate steps to ensure that investment by the corporate sector does not lead to the acquisition of land, deprivation, and alienation of a large mass of the villagers from their livelihood resources. The promises made in the ‘Utkarsh Odisha Conclave’ to fulfil the hopes and aspirations of the people of the state will only be possible if the new possibilities do not see the denial of basic right to livelihood resources to the underprivileged and marginalised.

A Way Forward

It is pertinent to question the current policy paradigms for analyzing the nature and response to crises like hunger, poverty, destitution, and distress migration. The root causes of the complexities and intensity of the crises are not prioritised in the policies of poverty alleviation and development. An analysis of the class-caste profile of the southwestern region in Odisha illustrates how over the years the nexus between the gountias, the landed class, moneylenders, and the middlemen, has led to the impoverishment and disentitlement of the poor tribals and the scheduled castes. The pattern of land ownership, land rights, and land relations provides an understanding of the encroachment, alienation, disentitlement, and exploitation of the lower caste and the tribals by the upper caste landlords and moneylenders, which aggravates the problem of hunger, poverty, inequality, underdevelopment, and distress conditions. The women of the interior regions in southwestern Odisha are the worst affected due to the loss of forest entitlements as well as common property resources. The lack of alternative sources of employment has led to distress migrations, which has added to their miseries.

To encounter some of the challenges, certain essential interventions are required such as creating real opportunities relating to land entitlements, access, ownership and control over productive resources, and right to land, water, and forest (particularly for the tribal population and women amongst them). Provisions to check land encroachments and alienation of land, labour, and crop and developing infrastructure to cultivate land; supportive credit; and access to capital and markets to prevent exploitations by moneylenders, landlords, traders, and middlemen need to be prioritised. There is a need to bring about structural changes to enable the poor to have access to land, forest, water, and other productive resources. They should have control over their land, labour, and produce.

Problems of food crisis are not only closely related to loss of food crops or deficiency of food intake, but also to deprivations of education, health care facilities, drinking water, and sanitation. Food security needs to be understood beyond good or surplus production. It is also more than the question of purchasing power or entitlement. Alongside food security, food sovereignty is important as it ensures the right to define one’s own food and agriculture and to protect and regulate domestic agricultural production based on the needs of small and marginal farmers.

The government should address the long-term solutions to the social and economic vulnerability of the poor. There is a need to delink the relief programmes of agrarian crises and their prevention from the long-term programmes for development in agriculture. In addition to designing long-term measures, an effective monitoring system is essential, which would enhance efficiency, transparency, and accountability, which are essential for the effective implementation of programmes. The gaps in policy implementation call for a wide range of actions, which need to be translated into policies in production, trade, entitlement, employment, and the environment. A new focus should be placed on mobilising the underutilised potential of smallholder farmers, landless, rural women, and other deprived groups. This will require people’s participation and involvement in the formulation, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of policies to secure basic rights. Thus, there is a need to give greater attention to a broader range of public action that may be adopted by the government in response to the NHRC’s suggestion for a monitoring system wherein the Panchayati Raj Institutions, leaders of civil society, NGOs assist the state with sincerity and integrity [3]. Democratising the power structure and constituting People’s Democratic Organisations (PDOs)/People’s Committees is important to enable disadvantaged groups to participate in the development process. Through people’s committees at the village level, the landless and the poor peasants, Dalits, Adivasis, and women can initiate structural measures and orient the institutions of state and civil society towards fulfilling their interests. That may lead to a long-term change in the situation. Thus, the people can exercise their political right to initiate and monitor structural transformation in a substantive way. This will ensure freedom from hunger, poverty, and destitution.

One’s right to live with dignity should not be just an administrative obligation rather than the citizen’s hard-won political right. Even today, the right to life and livelihood resources are neither a subject of popular debate nor a foundation of the government’s legitimacy. The problem of denial of basic rights is politicised for electoral gains, and the government is not required or expected to prevent the wider process of impoverishment and famishment. Election years normally see generous rural development or relief programmes, which are based on the government’s moral obligations to fulfil the electoral promises. However, a right that is granted as a moral responsibility is less substantial than the one that is won through political struggle. Freedom from poverty, hunger, and distress should be understood as a political right of the people.

(Author: Suranjita Ray teaches Political Science in Daulat Ram College, University of Delhi. She can be contacted at suranjitaray[at]dr.du.ac.in)

References

• India National Multidimensional Poverty: A Progress Review- 2023, NITI Aayog, Government of India, https://www.niti.gov.in/sites/default/files/2023-08/India-National-Multidimentional-Poverty-Index-2023.pdf visited on 10th April 2024.

• National Human Rights Commission Annual Report 1998-9 https://nhrc.nic.in

• Odisha Development Report, 2020 https://www.cysd.org/release-of-odisha-development-report-2020/

• Odisha Economic Survey, 2022-23; Planning and Governance Department, Government of Odisha,https://finance.odisha.gov.in/sites/default/files/202302/Odisha%20Economic%20Survey-2022-23%20%28Digital%20Version%29%20Final.pdf, visited on 12th April 2024.

• Odisha Economic Survey Report, 2023-24, Finance Department, Odisha, https://finance.odisha.gov.in

• Ray, Suranjita, 2024, ‘BJD needs to Introspect the Assembly Results’ in Mainstream, Jun 22 - July 6, ISSN: 2582-7316 http://mainstreamweekly.net/article14813.html