New Delhi /Bhubaneswar : As Naveen Patnaik completes 21 years in office as Chief Minister of Odisha today, the inevitable question comes to the fore again – What makes him click as a leader, who has never tasted defeat ever since his entry into politics?
An outsider with no connection with politics whatsoever, other than being the son of former Chief Minister Biju Patnaik, Naveen was pushed to the arena by the force of circumstances.
This man emerged to serve Odisha in 2000, He had no idea about what politics is called. He was born a Minister of Steel and Mines in Government of India and might regarded as the longest serving Chief Minister of India.
His magnificent father, Biju pattnaik known as the Bhoomi putra in Odisha. He was the one who modernized the state, the charismatic pilot turned into a freedom fighter turned political leader and served 2669 days in 2 terms, in 3 decades. The man sacrificed his own earned money, ancestral house to do politics, to heightened the status of his state. He dreamed of restoring the glory. Naveen desires to fulfill it.
Naveen came to politics at 51 after his father’s death. Naveen established a party in his father’s ethereal name, Biju Janta Dal, on 26 December, 1998. He became the Chief Minister of Odisha after 1 year 2 months 7 days. As of today, he has served 7742 gigantic days in the chair of Chief Minister. When you put emphasis on the fact that the man who had zero knowledge about politics, after 2 years he becomes the CM, you must be full of wonder. Naveen babu is still here with his historical line “Apana mane khusi ta”
Naveen fought 5 election till now. 2 with BJP and 3 alone. With the 2009 election Naveen babu collected a massive 103 seats alone. And there after he hasn’t lowered himself.
Odisha was just emerging from a super cyclone that was a kind of a trailer to the 2003 Tsunami. Nearly ten thousand perished and Odisha, a forever poor state, dead dropped to the bottom of the development barrel. Naveen in his tenure has already faced five such mega cyclones- Phailin (2013), Hudhud (2014), Titli (2018), Fani (2019) & Amphan (2020) – all of them in last decade. The total causality figure in all five has not crossed three digits. In 2013 Phailin mega storm, Odisha successfully evacuated a million people just before the storm hit and earned high praise from the UN. This mission of zero causality is now a catch phrase in disaster response and planning, courtesy this benign man. Now Odisha has a robust DRAF (Disaster Rapid Action Force), a super efficient OSDMA (Odisha State Disaster Management Authority) and a Rolex-smooth relief and rehab infrastructure that specializes in evacuating millions in rapid short time to thousands of cyclone shelter homes built along the coast.
In last 20 years in Naveen rule in Odisha PCI increased by 91.4%.and it is a key indicator of the futuristic increase of economy. How much Bhubaneswar has developed we all have seen in this 2 decades. After Bangalore, Hyderabad Bhubaneswar is the city of choice. It’s a smart city already.
You all have must visited puri and have seen how crowded and Conjusted the area around the temple was. Last year he announced the aspiring plan of making it a world Heritage. He didn’t stop with puri. Now all over the state there is an insane enthusiasm to develop all the temples to mall standard bombastic.
If you are buff in sports and regularly follow sports news, then in past days you must have heard Bhubaneswar often. Now we know Bhubaneswar as official sports capital City of India. Odisha has already hosted several international and national matches in last few years.
A Soft-spoken but said to be vaporous in private, this socialite of yore now lives a life of ascetic. There is a huge change in his lifestyle and persona, now more spectacular, accessible, hands on, pro active.
A beautiful book on Naveen Pattnaik was published by outlook editor Ruben Banerjee which encrypt very few interesting details from his journey.
