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Man Of Letters
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STATES: ORISSA

Man Of Letters

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's skill with the quill has the PMO busy acknowledging his missives. And on occasion agreeing to his demands.

By Ruben Banerjee

Throughout, his diehard opponents have blamed Naveen Patnaik, Orissa's chief minister, for the ills that plague the state. It's an attitude that the affable Patnaik has learnt to live with. But even he was taken aback when last week, Bijoy Mohapatra, president, Orissa Gana Parishad, accused him of being responsible for the shortage of postage stamps in the state. What could possibly have been the connection? If Mohapatra is to be believed, the crisis occurred because the "chief minister is writing simply too many letters".

Although it's doubtful whether Mohapatra seriously meant what he said, his statement throws light on a serious issue. During his 15-month tenure Patnaik has betrayed a propensity for dispatching, at the slightest pretext, letters to the prime minister and several union ministers on a variety of issues including a long-standing plea to declare Orissa a special category state. He has, in fact, proved to be a skillful, emotive and prolific writer who averages a letter every six days.

Not surprisingly, the regularity of Patnaik's post office rendezvous is stoking varied emotional responses in the state. "The letters prove how focused the chief minister is in extracting an extra pound of flesh from the centre for Orissa's development," says Panchanan Kanungo, a ruling BJD legislator. But a far greater number of people nurture diametrically opposite views. Mohapatra, for one, says, "I suspect Patnaik is deaf and dumb. Why else would he prefer writing letters over other effective means for getting Orissa a better deal?"

For some time now Patnaik has unwittingly borne the tag of being one of the quietest and least troublesome of the NDA's allies. Unlike N. Chandrababu Naidu of Andhra Pradesh for example, who has been given to bouts of brinkmanship, Patnaik has, in the past few months, proved to be the most dependable of allies making little or no outward demands for his state. But burgeoning official files now show that his rectitude may have found a different, more unusual avenue of expression. "As a former socialite with impeccable etiquette, the chief minister prefers to get things done in a civilised way," explains a prominent Patnaik-aide. And Patnaik's way of trying to get things done, as it now turns out, is to write letters aplenty to everyone who may be in a position to help.

Two particularly bulky files in the secretariat bear eloquent testimony to this. "Respected Shri Prime Ministerji," wrote Patnaik in a letter dated May 5, (vide UMI/2001/415-CM) requesting Vajpayee's personal intervention in directing the Food Corporation of India to procure more rice from Orissa and thereby save the state's farmers from distress sale. Another letter dated May 11 (UMI/2001/427-CM), seeks the prime minister's help in granting Orissa additional funds for drought relief. Four days later, Patnaik was at his desk again, (UMI-1/2001/435-CM), this time beseeching "Respected Prime Ministerji" to save Paradip port from "near extinction" by withdrawing a certain central notification. "The letters serve the great purpose of highlighting Orissa's rightful aspirations," says Patnaik. More letters followed and by the time May gave way to June, Patnaik had badgered the Prime Minister's office (PMO) with six epistles. "No chief minister has ever knocked on the doors of the PMO with requests and demands as Patnaik is now doing," says a senior bureaucrat.

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