Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik goes around after inaugurating a "World Skill Centre" at Mancheswar, in Bhubaneswar.
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik being administered with COVID-19 vaccine, during a countrywide inoculation drive, in Bhubaneswar.
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik meets hockey players at his residence in Bhubaneswar. Patnaik had announced that the city of Rourkela will be the venue for India’s largest h...
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik conducts an aerial survey of the flood-affected areas in the State.
In this file photo, from left, Outlook group Chairman Rajan Raheja, then finance minister Arun Jaitley, former President Pranab Mukherjee and Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik during the Ou...
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik watches Rath Yatra from his office, in Bhubaneswar.
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik watches Rath Yatra from his office, in Bhubaneswar.
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Pattnaik pays tribute to Sepoy Chandrakant Pradhan and Naib Subedar Nanduram Soren who were martyred in India-China clash at Ladakh's Galwan Valley, at...
Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik holds a review meeting after conducting an aerial survey of Cyclone Amphan-hit areas of state, in Bhubaneswar...
Prime Minister Narendra Modi being greeted on his arrival by Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and State Governor Ganeshi Lal, at the Biju Patnaik Airport in Bhubaneswar.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik holds a review meeting after conducting an aerial survey of Cyclone Amphan-hit areas of state, at the Biju Pa...
Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik during an aerial survey of the areas hit by Cyclone Amphan in Odisha.
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik wearing a face mask during a meeting with Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray via video conferencing about the transportation of migrant workers, i...
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik wearing a face mask during a meeting with Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani and Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan via video conferencing about the transp...
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik rings a bell as a gesture to show gratitude to the helpers and medical practitioners who are working relentlessly to fight coronavirus during J...
BJD candidates Muna Khan (C in green), Subash Singh, Sujit Kumar and Mamata Mahanta file their nominations for Rajya Sabha elections at Odisha Legislative Assembly chamber in Bhuba...
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik presents SDC Tribal Football Championship Cup to the winners of Men and Women team, at Barabati Stadium in Cuttack.
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik presents SDC Tribal Football Championship Cup to the winners of Men and Women team, at Barabati Stadium in Cuttack.
Others call it dole. But Naveen has always believed in making things easier for the poor. Seen here launching Aaahar scheme under which a rice-dalma meal is provided to the poor in...
After the bitter fallout with Pyari Mohan Mohapatra, Naveen was on the lookout for a Man Friday. His search ended with VK Pandian, who was posted as private secretary to the CM IN ...
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Mukul Kesavan in the Telegraph:
The main reason why Patnaik’s declared revulsion at the BJP’s communal politicking during and after the violence in Kandhamal is met with scepticism is that his pluralist, secular conscience seemed to have been hibernating during the Gujarat pogrom in 2002. And this is reasonable: horrible though Kandhamal was, it was, at best, Gujarat in miniature. So why was Patnaik straining at a gnat, having swallowed the camel?
There’s a straightforward answer to that question. For Patnaik, the pogrom of 2002 happened elsewhere. Any taint by association on account of the BJD’s membership of the NDA could be explained away by saying that the agenda and the doings of BJP satraps were the responsibility of that party alone. This was the position taken by Chandrababu Naidu, by Mayavati and by Patnaik.
Very rarely do I find myself disagreeing with Mukul Kesavan's well-thought out, nuanced arguments, but the following just doesn't add up:
...he is the son of Biju Patnaik, a buccaneering cosmopolitan whose single greatest act of derring-do was air-lifting nationalists in Muslim majority Indonesia out of Dutch captivity. He’s also the writer Gita Mehta’s brother. It’s hard to fit the ethnic cleansing of Christians into this family profile.
Sounds suspiciously like a PLU rationalisation to me. They said pretty much the same about many things that Nehru's daughter and grandsons did -- or the great grandson said recently, for example.
But despite the above reservations, it does make a nuanced argument and is right in suggesting that, yes, Kandhamal did perhaps play a part in Patnaik's decision. But it obviously was not so much to bring about a parting of the ways immediately. For Pataniak himself did engage in long, tortuous negotiations over seat-sharings with the BJP much after Kandhamal. It is an interesting thought experiment to ponder over just how many seats more would have ensured he stayed with the BJP.
Read the full article: A Matter of New Scruples
