India's National Magazine
From the publishers of THE HINDU

Vol. 16 :: No. 05 :: Feb. 27 - Mar. 12, 1999

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THE STATES

A changeover in Orissa

Giridhar Gamang takes over as Orissa Chief Minister, replacing J.B. Patnaik whose Government had come in for severe criticism following several instances of breakdown of law and order.

KALYAN CHAUDHURI

REPLACING during the run-up to Assembly elections a Chief Minister whose continuance has become a political liability is a method often used by political parties in the hope that a change of guard will turn the tide of popular opinion. The Congress(I) has resorted to just this practice in Orissa by replacing the long-serving Chief Minister, Janaki Ballabh Patnaik, with former Union Minister Giridhar Gamang, barely a year ahead of the Assembly elections in the State.

Sources in the All India Congress(I) Committee said that Patnaik resigned accepting moral responsibility for the killing of Australian missionary Graham Stewart Staines and his two sons on January 22-23 (Frontline, February 12). Other sources, however, claimed that party president Sonia Gandhi had sought Patnaik's resignation in response to mounting criticism of his Government over the law and order situation in the State following the killing of Staines, the alleged gang-rape of a nun, and the alleged gang-rape of Anjana Mishra, who has been waging a legal battle against persons close to Patnaik (Frontline, February 12). The principal Opposition party in the State, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), a constituent of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition that rules at the Centre, has been demanding the dismissal of the Government and imposition of President's Rule in the State.

Patnaik told Frontline that his decision to resign was not a sudden one. "I have been contemplating it for some time now. I have been under tremendous pressure... If all these attacks on Christians have anything to do with me as Chief Minister, I own moral responsibility and resign." Asked where the "tremendous pressure" was coming from, Patnaik said: "The AICC(I) people were being harassed by the media every day... I have done my duty and now I am waiting for the party high command to take a decision." Patnaik reportedly resigned on February 9 but his letter of resignation reached Acting Governor C. Rangarajan three days later.

EASTERN PRESS AGENCY
Chief Minister Giridhar Gamang.

Patnaik's detractors in the State unit of the Congress(I) welcomed his exit. However, even after he stepped down, Patnaik sought to have his way in the matter of appointing a successor. At that stage the names in the reckoning were those of Deputy Chief Minister Basant Biswal and State Congress(I) president Hemananda Biswal, both of whom were among Patnaik's detractors. Under pressure from Patnaik's supporters, the central leadership of the party decided to delay the election of a new leader until February 15. The Congress(I) Legislature Party met that day and authorised Sonia Gandhi to choose the new leader.

Sources said that the move to authorise Sonia Gandhi to choose a leader was initiated by Patnaik, who presided over the CLP meeting and who was determined to ensure that none of his rivals succeeded him. AICC observers Pranab Mukherjee and Madhavrao Scindia met Hemananda Biswal and all 88 Congress(I) MLAs individually in Bhubaneswar ahead of the party meeting. They also sought the opinion of the Congress(I) MPs from Orissa.

After the CLP passed a resolution moved by Patnaik authorising Sonia Gandhi to take a decision, the meeting was adjourned for two hours to seek her opinion. It was only after she indicated her preference for Giridhar Gamang, eight-time MP from the Koraput constituency, that the observers announced his name. The choice was promptly ratified by the CLP.

The choice of Patnaik's successor was not approved unanimously. Former Chief Minister Nandini Satpathy walked out of the CLP meeting in protest against the "imposition" of a leader on the CLP. The process of "electing" a CLP leader, Nandini Satpathy said, had in fact become an "exercise in manipulation". It is believed that many Congress(I) MLAs opposed the appointment of a leader who is not a member of the Assembly.

Political observers see Gamang's ascension, with Patnaik's backing, as a victory of sorts for Patnaik insofar as Basant Biswal and Hemananda Biswal did not have their way.

In 1995, Patnaik, who was then not an MLA, became Chief Minister with Basant Biswal's support even though Prime Minister and party president P.V. Narasimha Rao wanted Gomango (as he was then called, before he had his surname changed to Gamang) appointed; Patnaik later won a byelection. Since then, however, much water has flowed down the Mahanadi. In a Cabinet reshuffle in August 1998, Patnaik stripped Basant Biswal of the Finance portfolio. Sources say Basant Biswal now stands on shaky ground and may even be dropped from the Ministry.

Gamang kept his distance from Patnaik-baiters and even maintained a good equation with the outgoing Chief Minister. That political investment has now earned good dividents in the form of Patnaik's support for his chief ministership. Sonia Gandhi is believed to have favoured Gamang, who belongs to a tribal community, because he has a clean image and is not closely identified with any one faction of the party in Orissa. He is one of the few Congress(I) leaders who have served as Minister under three Congress(I) Prime Ministers - Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Narasimha Rao. He is known to have a good rapport with most senior Congress(I) leaders.

Relations between Hemananda Biswal and Patnaik have been strained for long. Hemananda Biswal was made Chief Minister in December 1989, replacing Patnaik, after the Congress(I) was routed in the Lok Sabha elections. Then, as now, the change was made with an eye on the Assembly elections. But the change did not help the party. The Congress(I) was again trounced in the Assembly elections in February 1990.

In March 1995, when the Congress(I) returned to power in the State, Patnaik became Chief Minister for the third time. Hemananda Biswal was appointed one of two Deputy Chief Ministers, but he submitted his resignation to Prime Minister Narasimha Rao. He was, however, persuaded to continue in the Ministry. In 1998, he resigned from the Ministry and took over as State party president, as part of a settlement worked out with Patnaik. However, differences between the two leaders cropped up again late last year and there was speculation that Patnaik was trying to have him replaced as State party president.

SANDEEP SAXENA
J.B. Patnaik, who was replaced a year ahead of Assembly elections.

In recent months Patnaik's detractors mounted an offensive against him, particularly following the alleged gang-rape of Anjana Mishra, the estranged wife of an Indian Forest Service officer. Following the alleged gang-rape, Anjana Mishra levelled serious charges against Patnaik and former Advocate-General of Orissa Indrajit Roy; she has filed a case against Indrajit Roy for an alleged sexual assault. Patnaik, an artful survivor in the choppy sea of Congress(I) politics, dismissed demands for his resignation. Soon afterwards, Staines and his sons were burnt to death, and a nun was allegedly gang-raped; although the central leadership of the Congress(I) maintained that the incidents were the ghastly outcome of the Sangh Parivar's politics of hate and intimidation against the minorities, Patnaik's detractors in the State used them to target him politically.

AICC(I) general secretary in charge of Orissa Madhavrao Scindia said that Patnaik's resignation should not be read as a victory for one or the other faction. The Chief Minister, he said, "has resigned in the exemplary spirit of owning moral responsibility". According to a senior member of the Congress(I) Working Committee, it was wrong to suggest that Patnaik had been asked to resign because of a few "stray" incidents. "It is too simplistic a view," the leader said. "These incidents might have hastened the process of change, but things have been brewing for a while. The Congress(I) president has taken an overall view."

Patnaik is not without political support within the CWC, but the central leadership of the party evidently was swayed by the argument that Patnaik had become far too unpopular to lead the party to victory in the Assembly elections.

EASTERN PRESS AGENCY
State Congress(I) president Hemananda Biswal.

PATNAIK ruled Orissa for 13 years spread over three terms in office, surviving largely on the strength of his mastery over the art of realpolitik, the politics of intrigue and the vast money power he commanded, all of which ensured that he was an "asset" to the high command. However, ever since Sonia Gandhi took over as Congress(I) president, Patnaik's political fortunes were on the descendant. He was seen to have been too close to Narasimha Rao, and Sonia Gandhi's inner ring of advisers are mostly leaders who were marginalised during the Narasimha Rao years, such as Arjun Singh, Madhavrao Scindia, K. Natwar Singh and M.L. Fotedar. Sonia Gandhi had reportedly decided months ago to replace Patnaik when a Congress(I) team comprising among others K. Karunakaran and Mohsina Kidwai, which visited the State, reported that the party would not return to power in the State if Patnaik remained in power. This line was reinforced by reports from the PCC(I) president and Scindia.

When Patnaik was summoned to Delhi on February 8, Pranab Mukherjee, Jitendra Prasada and Scindia were deputed to break the "bad news" to him. When Scindia and Mukherjee told Patnaik that he would have to go, the Chief Minister's only demand was that none of his detractors should succeed him. Soon afterwards, Sonia Gandhi began consulting party leaders and CWC members to choose a successor. The names that were considered were those of Gamang, Basant Biswal, Hemananda Biswal, Public Works Minister Niranjan Patnaik, veteran party leaders K.P. Singh Deo and Kanu Charan Lenka and Patnaik's wife Jayanti Patnaik. However, Scindia and Mukherjee reportedly told Patnaik that the party would consider his request that none of those who openly campaigned against him be chosen. Thus Basant Biswal, Hemananda Biswal and Lenka were out of the race.

At one stage, Patnaik's supporters, who claimed to have the backing of more than half the 83 Congress(I) MLAs, reportedly said that the changeover would not be smooth if his nominee was not made Chief Minister. They even decided to conduct a signature campaign to press their demand and seek a meeting with Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi. But Sonia Gandhi's office squelched any attempt for a revolt by making it clear that dissension would not be tolerated. "Only the will of the high command will prevail," a CWC member from Orissa said.

Then, as a face-saving compromise, Patnaik's supporters sought for him a membership in the CWC or some post within the AICC(I) hierarchy. But the high command was unwilling to yield to any of these demands. At the last minute, Patnaik asked his supporters to cancel their planned visit to Delhi.

Jubilant over Patnaik's removal, Opposition parties reaffirmed their resolve to continue their struggle to defeat the Congress(I) in the State. Biju Janata Dal president Naveen Patnaik said that his party would continue to function as a watchdog to prevent "further misrule". Leaders of the BJD said that they would continue to press their demand for imposition of President's Rule in the State.