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.