BJD @ 24: Triumph of Biju Legacy

The Biju Janata Dal, founded on this day in 1997 in the name of legendary freedom fighter and architect of modern Odisha, late Biju Patnaik, has completed its glorious 23 years in Odisha. If any regional party in India has ever dominated the political landscape of a State for more than two decades without a break, it is unquestionably the BJD, the party with a difference. The party, led by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, celebrates not just the chronological significance of completing 23 years of its existence but its numerous achievements in reshaping the State centered around people and their welfare. The Biju Janata Dal is now synonymous with faith and hope for 4.5 crore people of Odisha due to its exemplary commitment to the development of the State. With its inspiring ideologies and value-based politics, BJD continues to preserve a permanent place in the hearts of people.

The legacy of BJD-led government is firmly anchored on saving life and livelihood from disasters, ensuring food and health security to vast masses of people, politically and economically empowerment of women, uplifting millions from poverty and all round development and progress of the State.

The dominance of the BJD in the political landscape of Odisha for the last two decades has been quite phenomenal. The party formed during the most turbulent period of Odisha’s political history, has been the most successful regional party not only in the State but also in India winning every election with huge margins. It has set a new precedence in the era of electoral politics in Odisha with the unprecedented victory march, election after election.

The growing popularity and electoral success of the BJD is solely credited to its Supremo and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who is adored by millions of people for his crystal clean image, corruption-free and transparent government. Naveen’s pro-people and development-oriented policies have made Odisha the fastest developing economy of the country.

Naveen’s ‘people first’ approach has not only helped him become one of the longest-serving chief ministers in India, but also the ideal chief minister in the country.

“The BJD is a movement to serve the people and empower them. The 4.5 crore people are BJD’s family members. People have voted us not to power but to serve them”. These are the words of Naveen to his party leaders and members.

Odisha, which was once infamous for hunger, poverty and starvation deaths, is now one of the most steadily growing states in India. Its economic growth rate is much higher than the national average.

Odisha: Investment Destination

Good politics can lead to good economics and Odisha has proved this. The more than two decades of uninterrupted and growth oriented economic policies and governance initiatives have helped the state to be the number one investment destination in the country. The able leadership of Naveen Patnaik has led to a number of innovative steps and streamlined the business ecosystem to attract sizeable investments into the State.

Odisha has been able to leverage its resources and locational advantages to pump in funds on the ground, with transparency, accountability and increased efficiency.

The soft spoken Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik has been instrumental in bringing about the State’s amazing turnaround. Odisha is now a regional hub in many sectors ranging from education to sports and healthcare. Besides, it has also emerged as a major player in information technology industry as well. It’s talent pool is one of the best in the country which attracts the investors.

Odisha Government’s early focus on leveraging iron ore and bauxite resources to boost downstream value-addition has triggered the development of other sectors such as petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals and food-processing. In tandem, Naveen Patnaik has also launched a slew of path-breaking social policies like “Mo Sarkar” for bringing in more transparency in governance and the system in place. Naveen Patnaik, who makes it a point to be friendly across the political divide, has appeared to hold lessons for other chief ministers to follow.

In the first half of FY 20 Odisha attracted about 18 percent of the total investments the country received. During the lackluster times of Covid-19 pandemic, Odisha approved some of the largest investment proposals in the state. Naveen’s government approved investment proposals worth more than 92 thousand crore rupees in one go that have a potential to give employment to more than 31,979 Persons.

The trickle down effects of economic development on other sectors is also visible clearly. The agriculture sector in Odisha witnessed a growth rate of 7.61 per cent outpacing the national average of 2.80 per cent. Odisha has also received the prestigious Krushikarman award for outstanding performance in agriculture sector many a times in the last decade.

BJD and Women Empowerment

One of the extraordinary accomplishments of the BJD during these twenty three years is its enviable record of women’s empowerment. By fielding women in 33 per cent of the parliamentary seats of Odisha for Lok Sabha during the last general elections, Biju Janata Dal led by Naveen Patnaik has took women empowerment to the next level and beyond. It is indeed a splendid example for rest of the country. The BJD has followed the path shown by Biju babu who reserved seats for women in Panchayat level. BJD president Naveen Patnaik wrote to the chiefs of all political parties to do so at the state and national levels. In doing this, BJD has remained in the forefront in engendering politics which is often male dominated.

Another example of women empowerment in true spirit is Odisha’s more than 70 lakh women self help group members. The mighty movement for women’s empowerment in the State was unleashed when Self Help Groups were established four to five years after the BJD was formed in 1997. Today, as the party celebrates its 24th anniversary, the leaders and rank and file of the party and the whole State of Odisha note with satisfaction that the SHGs have now in their fold seven million women. They have heralded a new vision, hope and shown a road map for greater empowerment of women. All such wide spectrum activities constitute the social engineering which is transforming society and economy in a decisive way for achieving positive social changes which are of lasting significance.

Community Participation in COVID Management

The focus in Odisha’s COVID fight was mainly on community surveillance and community monitoring of Covid-19. For keeping strict vigil and enforce the special guidelines community participation is a must and hence the state government decided to take the grassroots community leaders all along. Active participation of the community can check spike in the spread of the disease. Managing the affairs of more than six lakh migrant workers during a pandemic was a gigantic task and that becomes even more challenging when the whole country is in lockdown mode. Odisha, a substantial contributor to the country’s migrant workforce, took some initial measures that helped it contain the spread of Covid-19 to a great extent. As most of the migrants returning to the state belonged to the rural hinterlands, managing their affairs was the biggest challenge in hand and needed the best available acumen. It prompted the government of Odisha to look at the Panchayatiraj Institutions which are working in the grassroots. In order to give the grassroots level PRI institutions the executive power to manage the migrant affairs, Odisha decided to delegated them with the powers of the Collector. To manage the registration and quarantine efforts at the gram panchayats, the sarpanchs were delegated with the Collectors’ power in their jurisdiction under the provisions of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, the Epidemic Diseases Act 1897 and Odisha Covid-19 Regulations. Odisha became the first and only state in India to make such a provision. The decision to empower the Sarpanchas allowed them to plan, coordinate and take steps to contain the spread of Covid-19 as per the local need. The thrust of the Government of Odisha led by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik was on strengthening the rural governance system by making the panchayats more powerful. As the grassroots level panchayats are best capable to fight the situation, in its first step, the government decided to give financial assistance to each and every panchayat in the state to the tune of Rs 5 lakh to set up isolation centers. This helped the state to create a massive availability of standby care centers.

5T and Mo Sarkar: Path-breaking Initiatives to Transform Governance

The fifth term of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik led government began with some of the best initiatives for transformation of governance that the state or the country never saw. The 5T and Mo Sarkar Initiatives of Odisha Government have set new benchmark of governance. Respecting the people’s mandate for governance, Naveen yet again took a number of transformative steps that are slowly changing the way government was functioning in the state. The peoples’ expectations are becoming much higher day by day. So he set in motion the ambitious ‘Mo Sarkar’ initiative on Gandhi Jayanti as part of his pro-people ‘5T action plan’.

The ‘5Ts’ — short for ‘teamwork, technology, transparency, transformation and time limit’ — are the governance mantra Patnaik has given to his Cabinet colleagues and senior officials days after assuming the top office for the fifth time.

Under ‘Mo Sarkar’, arguably the first-of-its-kind initiative in the country, the Chief Minister, DGP, Chief Secretary and other top officials make phone calls to citizens for their feedback on visits to hospitals, police stations and government offices.

People are being asked about the behavior and professionalism of government officials who dealt with them. The officials are being ranked as per the peoples’ feedback. The CM himself has spoken to people over the phone.

A Department of 5T has been created to carry out the initiative under the CM’s direct supervision. The CM has flagged off the new initiative by calling up visitors to police stations and hospitals, selected randomly, and get their feedback on the quality of services they receive and the way they are treated in these establishments.

Zero Tolerance to Corruption and Transparency In Governance – The New Mantra

The fight against corruption will help us in our fight against all ills of society. May it be inequality, poverty, injustice, or any other maladies. “We are fighting against poverty, disease, regional inequality, natural disasters, inequality, injustice and incompetence. All our fights are worthless unless we focus on transparency and eradicate corruption”, said Naveen while addressing the State Council Meeting of Biju Janata Dal.

The Biju Janata Dal Government in Odisha has been fighting corruption since the beginning. Odisha’s fight against corruption has brought it fame in the country. Whether setting up of special courts for trial of corruption cases or the confiscation of property of corrupt individuals, Odisha is at the forefront in the fight against corruption.

“Odisha is one of the few states in the country to have a powerful Lokayukt. We have always taken strong and exemplary action against corrupt officials, no matter how big he or she is. In many cases, they are being dismissed. In the last one year, the government has dismissed 91 corrupt officers”, Naveen said while adding the fight against corruption will be further intensified.

Naveen’s masterstroke on fighting corruption is the decision to make it compulsory for all government officials to declare their property statements. All government officials starting from the lowest rung employees to Civil Servants and all ministers and MLAs will have to give their Property statement which will be sent to the Lokayukata and kept in Public Domain. This is a historic step announced by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

With each passing day, Biju Janata Dal is getting more and more strong due to its people centric governance. The Party has created for itself a niche place that not so many parties in the country could do. Naveen’s charisma along with the hard work of each and every member and worker of the party are striving hard to continue the legacy of Biju Babu.

The only thing more powerful than the State and its might is its people. The people of Odisha are imbibed with the Biju legacy and understand how Naveen has taken it forward by empowering fifty percent of its population- women. His empathy with them is legion. He is the leader who listens to the unspoken voice of the millions. Today is the day to rededicate for the cause of the people, thereby carrying the ember of that legacy forward.