Remote-controlling Navin

Orissa Chief Minister Navin Patnaik might have been voted first among chief ministers by a leading national newsmagazine — but is there a super chief minister in Orissa remote-controlling him?

Bibhuti Mishra Bhubaneshwar

Most people in the state, from senior ministers to bureaucrats to the person in the street, would probably answer in the affirmative. This super chief minister is the omnipotent "uncle" — retired bureaucrat Pyarimohan Mohapatra, now a Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament (MP) from the Biju Janata Dal (BJD).

"When Navin stepped into the shoes of [his father] Biju Patnaik, he was a political minnow," says Ramakrishna Patnaik, former minister in the Biju Patnaik and Navin Patnaik Cabinets and now arch rival of the latter. "So, Gyana Patnaik asked Pyari babu to guide him because he had been a trusted aide of Biju Patnaik. Navin wasn't, and still isn't, a capable leader or chief minister, and it is Pyari babu who has grown from strength to strength and is running the government through remote control."

Pyarimohan Mohapatra literally played chess to bring Navin Patnaik back to chief ministership for the second time in 2004. Patnaik fought on the plank of "cleanliness" at the express behest of Mohapatra and won hands down. When it was time for Mohapatra to come to the foreground, he did, and was elected to the Rajya Sabha. He also took up a more open role in party affairs, focussing on making the BJD a cadre-based party in the manner of the Marxists in neighbouring West Bengal. Recently, when the Congress-led Opposition tried to push Patnaik into a corner over the controversial Tangarpada mining lease issue, it was Mohapatra who made the BJD take out a strong rally in Patnaik's support.

An Indian Administrative Service officer from the 1963 batch, Mohapatra served as principal secretary to Biju Patnaik when the latter was chief minister from 1990 to 1995. He rose to be the most trusted confidante of the Janata Dal supremo and though he was pushed to oblivion by the Congress government that took over under J B Patnaik in 1995, Mohapatra's resurrection has been spectacular after Navin Patnaik took over. Patnaik was new to Orissa, new to politics and it was only natural that his mother "appointed" Pyari babu, then leading a retired life, to be the guardian in Patnaik's fledgling political career.

Navin consulted him on all significant decisions. But Pyari babu had a long-term plan and he wanted to eliminate conspirators masquerading as Biju's colleagues. So, in one stroke, leaders like Bijoy Mohapatra, Nalinikanta Mohanty and later Dilip Ray and Ramkrishna Patnaik, who could have been threats to Navin, were axed. Pyari babu deftly manipulated an electoral victory for Patnaik and the BJD.

All the while, Pyari babu has been clever enough not to project himself as another power centre and kept a low profile. He dismisses the impression that he is remote-controlling the Navin Patnaik government. "That's a wrong notion," he says. "The chief minister takes a number of important decisions himself. He sometimes consults me and there is nothing wrong in that. I have not gone to the secretariat after I retired and it is the media with their vested interests who spread such a canard…Biju Patnaik emphasised industry and Navin Patnaik stresses agriculture. This would have far reaching impacts. A lot of things which were planned during Biju Patnaik's time have been implemented by Navin Patnaik, especially in the field of tribal welfare and women's empowerment.

Others would beg to differ. Prashanta Nanda, a former Bharatiya Janata Party  minister in Patnaik's Cabinet who was unceremoniously thrown out on corruption charges, says, "It is Pyarimohan Mohapatra all the way. Even the budget the finance minister presents is first vetted by him. Not a leaf shakes in Navin's government without Pyari babu's approval." A former minister, who was deprived of a berth this time round, agrees, "The ministers were first okayed by Pyari babu.  Navin only signs on whatever Pyari babu decides. He does not know Orissa and cannot speak Oriya. So it is Pyari babu who runs the show. It is not BJD but PJD (Pyari Janata Party)."

An officer in the Chief Minister's Office reveals, "Every posting, even that of a clerk, is overseen by Pyari babu who also decides which meetings the chief  minister should attend and what he should say."

Even BJD party members seem to know that. But as long as Pyari babu keeps the party and the government on the victory stand, nobody is complaining.