Sambalpur: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) doesn’t agree with the approach of the Naveen Panaik-led Biju Janata Dal (BJD) to Odisha’s ‘asmita (pride)’ and self-respect — one of the reasons why the BJP did not want to tie up with the BJD, Union Education and Skill Development Minister Dharmendra Pradhan told ThePrint in an interview.
“In the last 10 years, the BJD has extended support to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on different occasions in the parliament for the cause of national interest. We are thankful to them. But their anti-Odia approach, (and) rampant corruption, we disagree with. In a democracy, we have our right and responsibility to fulfil people’s wishes,” said Pradhan, who is contesting elections after a gap of 15 years from the Sambalpur Lok Sabha seat in western Odisha.
He will face off with BJD’s Pranab Prakash Das and Congress’s Durga Prasad Padhi.
Pradhan last contested the 2009 assembly elections when BJD’s Rabi Narayan Pani defeated him from the Pallahara seat. Before that, he had won the Deogarh Lok Sabha seat in 2004.
Pradhan told ThePrint that he is not the BJP’s chief ministerial face in Odisha.
“We haven’t decided anything… What we have decided is to fight with a collective leadership approach, and I am confident that the people of Odisha will change the present government,” said Pradhan.
One of the most prominent politicians from the state, Pradhan said the BJP is the party of the future in Odisha.
“We are in a position to oust the incumbent BJD government. Until 2014, we were in the third position, but in 2019, we replaced the Congress and became number two in the state,” he said.
Pradhan said the BJP’s vote share increased from 22 percent in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections to up to 38 percent in 2019.
“In the assembly elections too, BJP secured 18 percent vote in 2014 and came third. But in 2019, it became the principal opposition party and secured 32 percent (votes) through a popular mandate,” he said.
He also said the BJP’s presence has gone beyond western Odisha now.
“The BJP is today a pan-Odisha party. In 2019, we won the prestigious Bhubaneshwar and Baleshwar Lok Sabha seats. We also won in the tribal-dominated district of Mayurbhanj. So, it’s not fair to say that BJP is a party of western Odisha. This time, we are going to win all the 21 seats in parliament,” the Union minister said.
He added that BJP’s organisational structure in the state is robust and gradually being strengthened.
“There are 36,000 polling stations in our state. Our slogan is ‘booth jeeta toh chunav jeeta’. We are very much focussed. ‘Booth vijay abhiyan’ is on… ‘Modi vijay abhiyan’ is on,” he said.
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‘5T model a stunt’
About how he rated the performance of the BJD, which has been in power in the state for over 25 years, Pradhan said, ‘’If anybody is getting a mandate from the people in a democracy like ours, certainly, it’s a matter of achievement. I appreciate and recognise that. But in the last 25 years, what did he do to the state of Odisha, with this kind of majority, this kind of decisive mandate?”
Pradhan said if he correlated the BJD’s years in power with what the government did for the betterment of the people, health condition, drinking water, employment situation, safety of women, etc., he becomes “totally disillusioned” and “disheartened”.
“There is a huge dichotomy… On (the) one hand, (the) people of Odisha are reposing their faith again and again in you and your party, but on the other hand, see the road condition, health sector in Odisha, unemployment… There is no dearth of mineral resources, water, forest resources, and quality cultivable land here. With all these advantages, why do you fail to achieve the desired standard of living?” Pradhan asked.
The Union minister called the Naveen Patnaik government’s famed 5T (transparency, teamwork, technology and timeliness leading to transformation) citizen-centric governance model to find out the extent the administration has managed to reach people a “stunt”.
“To cover up their failure they have created a stunt. What is the responsibility of the government? Cabinet in itself is a team envisioned by our Constitutional framework… today, after 25 years if you say now that we are a team, we are time bound, we are technology friendly, it’s a big dichotomy,” Pradhan said.
He added that the 5T model is for nothing but grabbing power from behind and running the show undemocratically. ”This is unfortunate in a democracy. Some people think they are above accountability. People will not accept this stunt,” Pradhan said.
Comparing the UPA and NDA government’s contribution to the development of Odisha, Pradhan said that from 2004 to 2014, the UPA led by the Congress party allocated only Rs 3 lakh crore. “But from 2014 till 2024, when the NDA was in power, PM Modi allocated Rs 18 lakh crore to the state. This is the fundamental difference,” Pradhan said.
Pradhan added that during his term as petroleum minister, the PM’s vision ensured clean cooking fuel to women in Odisha, along with in other states, under the Ujjwala Yojana. Also, 34 lakh houses were allocated in Odisha under PM Awas Yojana, he said.
On the criticism over changes in the educational curriculum, Pradhan said that he fails to understand what the noise is all about.
“If we give importance to our mother tongue, is it wrong? If we want to recognise the country’s unsung heroes, is it a bad thing? If we are implementing skill-based education (and) implementing technology-based education, is it a matter to be opposed? Those opposing for the sake of opposition, it’s political, it’s motivated,” he said.
Pradhan also said that all the major work and consultations on the Higher Education Commission of India bill, which proposes a single higher education regulator, have been completed. “When the new government is formed, in the initial days, it will be enacted in the Parliament,” he said.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
Also read: ‘Has outlived its shelf life’ — BJP’s Baijayant Panda on 25 years of BJD rule in Odisha