BIJU BABU-UNFINSHED AGENDA

Bikash Choudhury


Ideas have long self life. Powerful Ideas have survived for thousands of years. As Ideas on religions of Hinduism, Christianity and Judaism have influenced millions of people and have lived for thousands of years and would continue to influence people and the world we live in for years to come by. Though, Ideas on Jihad is extremely powerful; however, it has consumed millions of human lives. The architect of modern Odisha Biju Babu has also left behind a powerful Idea for his motherland in his speech at Binod Kanoongo memorial lecture in 1992; “In my dream of the 21st century for the state. I would have young men and women who put the interest of the state before them. They will have pride in them, confidence in themselves. They will not be at anybody’s mercy, except their own selves. By their brain, intelligence and capacity, they will recapture the history of Kalinga. I would like my Odisha of the 21st century to have excellent artisans, superb craftsmen and sculptors, greatest musicians and poets”. Biju Babu apparently had confirmed that young men of Odisha would make his dream a reality, one day in twenty first century. It goes without saying that the thought of Biju Babu must have been living in the minds of people that springs into prominence now and then. If we analyze the vision of Biju Babu; we will find that Biju Babu put a lot of importance on youth energy and individuals with ability to sacrifice personal well being for the state and he also stressed on individual qualities like personal pride, self confidence and human intelligence which are all by products of education, training, skill development and personal grooming. Further, his idea of recapturing the history of Kalinga was symbolic of extra ordinary social progress, economic growth and political influence in National & International affairs with flourishing art, craft and literature. Those Ideas of Biju Babu remains still valid even after twenty long years and inspiring young and old alike; is testimony of his deeper understanding of his land and people by this visionary states man, passionate nationalist, incorrigible optimist and a human being par excellence; born on the soils of Odisha.On the eve of 76th Odisha Divas our leadership ideally should revisit the vision of Biju Babu and leverage current level of governance arrangement and success in political mobilization with ambitious goal in social & economic progress; taking cue from China which multiplied its GDP ten times in less than thirty years with the help of free market economy. We could restructure our Agriculture sector with the help of Co-operatives, let loose private enterprise in education and health care to post cascading growth. Propagate innovation-excellence-enterprise and a sense of cleanliness in all walks of life to see “the decade of destiny” take shape as conceived and pursued by Biju Babu in his life time. This should also help our leaders to fill the vacuum in National leadership.

MOTHER- WITH A DIFFERENCE

BIKASH CHOUDHURY


My mother born 73 years ago in a little hamlet was a beautiful woman with a golden heart; her personality in a family photograph that adorns our home with my father and three senior siblings was no less of any current Bollywood diva; but, she was also, a woman-man with extra ordinary courage, strength, fortitude and an epitome of sacrifice as she pulled herself to support her husband to look after the children and widows of her husband’s two deceased brothers without any complain. She willingly shared all her meager resources and a small two bed room home. Single handedly fed fifteen hungry stomachs at home for years while many times skipped her launch or dinner. She had a very brief honey moon period when her husband was doing exceedingly well in his career and the commitments to the extended family was at minimum as they were all on their own doing good for themselves. But, as bad luck or misfortune would have it; she was struck again; as she lost her husband to a freak motor accident all of a sudden. Within a few days she lost half her weight and lost her moorings for a few months; but, soon she collected herself and gained composure to rebuild the broken pieces of her life and to take care of her three minor children and two grown up. She left no stones unturned to give a good life to her children; in such crisis like time in her own life she did not hesitate to help a neighbor with the finances or helping a tenant’s wife in baby sitting. All these she used to do with conviction and derive immense pleasure. Her belief in spiritual guru must have given her strength to face insurmountable challenges that life brought on the way. Now as she counts her last few breaths having inflicted with gull bladder cancer with an emaciated body in stark contrast to her beauty in her youth reminds about the transitory nature of life. However, she would go down as a valiant woman with rare resilience and be remembered as a benevolent woman who touched many human lives in a very sensitive way.

PORIBORTAN MAMATA STYLE

Bikash Choudhury


‘Chief Minister barging into a police station to release one of her party cadres caught the news paper headline’ a few months back. It was non other than Ms. Mamata Banerjee, the West Bengal Chief Minister at Kolkata. The entire nation got shocked; forcing the Governor Mr. Narayanan to disapprove such an act. But, Bangali Babus who know ‘Didi Bhai’ closely were not surprised. Later on the hooliganism of student’s wing of Trinamool Congress in college campuses and manhandling of Principal of a college was caught on camera; but, ignored by the chief minister and her party. Subsequently Mamata embarrassed the Prime Minister and the Country by declining to join the delegation of PM in his Bangladesh visit; all of sudden, on the Tessta water sharing issue with Bangladesh though she was consulted earlier by Shiv Shankar Menon, National Security Adviosr. And, now her strident opposition of her own Railway Minister of her own party Sri Dinesh Trivedi shows complete surrender to competitive populism quite contrast to her own election manifesto which promised “poribortan”. Is this the change she wishes to usher into long neglected state of West Bengal after a long and hard struggle against the red brigade that includes Singur agitation? Is there any method to her madness? She is actually a veteran of agitational politics and finds it very difficult to adjust with developmental politics as playing into gallery has become her second nature. May be her toils and tribulation against left front has made her completely negative whereas in victory mass leaders and states men court a large heart-forget & forgive to make a constructive beginning; it is strange and surprising to see Mamata a prolific author and poet succumbing to gross populism which will cause her more harm than any good. Already she would have lost a chunk of her mandate in West Bengal and earned a negative perception with the younger population across the country.
Those who have gone through the Trinamool Congress manifesto before the assembly election would have certainly hoped for a developmental agenda of Mamata led West Bengal Government and not a confrontational menu against central govt. in lock stock and barrel. Mamata needs to learn a thing or two from Odisha Chief Minister, Sri Naveen Patnaik and Bihar Chief Minister, Sri Nitish Kumar who perform with quite efficiency within their meager resources of their respective state while fighting with centre (biased & politically motivated policies & politics) on issues of resources allocation and devolution of powers which has earned them a stature on political management across the country.

Mamata should not follow in the foot steps of her predecessor who in thirty years brought down an industrially developed state to the mercy of agrarian economy on a false pretext of labor class. She should rather follow her own manifesto where in she had promised to develop the city of Kolakata into London, international standard infrastructure and Maa, Matee & Manus. Otherwise her opponents would happily go to the bank to encash peoples mandate in next available opportunity.

Vote Bank Politics Bombed

Bikash Choudhury



Rahul Gandhi came out of his residence with three weeks of stubbles on
face and gracefully conceded defeat and took the responsibility for
the debacle before any more sycophant Congress leaders could belittle
him with their inexplicable defense of their leader which is uncalled
for and inappropriate. Rahul admitted that he was heading the Congress
campaign and the victory or defeat; he will take both on his stride.
While returning after meeting the press; Mrs. Gandhi Jr. was there to
receive him with affection and hand around the shoulders; this was a
sisterly consolation or a political collaboration to follow, camera
lenses failed to capture. Nobody or none would disagree with Rahul’s
contribution for bringing down invincible Maya (only a perception)
from her high pedestal; but, completely failed to capture the votes;
in spite of clocking over 200 rallies during election campaigning and
over five years of ground work and public contact programs, padayatras
and camp fires at Dalit’s homes. A neutral observer would know that
Rahul’s efforts in UP was over shadowed by a poor, extremely corrupt,
inefficient and in effective UPA 2 Govt. at the centre with
questionable track record in Governance; which eventually did the
tricks for Congress not only in UP but also in Punjab where Congress
failed to capture the benefits of anti incumbency against the Badals
and in Uttarakhand where Congress failed to capture a simple majority.
Actually, Congress game plan of vote bank politics exploded on their
face; as smart electorate could see through the unnecessary
controversy around Batala House encounter, 4.5% minority reservation
and at the end Presidents rule threat; and, came out in large numbers
to vote for their party of choice; and Congress was not one among
them-the so called money power, muscle power and the power over CBI
came to naught. The count down for
general election 2014 truly begins here and now; as it adds fresh
challenges for the Congress party to retain power for the third time
which may prove to be a Herculean task. Congress party could at least
save the initiative to keep a fighting chance for 2014; by removing
their Hitler Didi attitude and adopting a collaborative frame work for
Governance while lifting the inertia to faster decision making and by
taking bold steps to alter the structural and systemic epidemics in
Governance by focusing once again on issues like Bijli, Sadak & Pani
and Roti, Kapada & Makan.