Why BJD MP Tathagata Satpathy quit politics to focus on journalism

At a time when many journalists are quitting their profession to take a plunge into politics, here is a person who has opted out of electoral politics to return to journalism. On March 5, Tathagata Satpathy, four-time MP of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and son of former chief minister Nandini Satpathy, announced that he won’t contest ensuing Lok Sabha election, though he will continue to be in politics.

It was a shocker. Knowing Satpathy, who is never a quitter, his decision not to contest the election, amid speculation of a possible denial of the party ticket, has raised many eyebrows. Satpathy, however, dismisses any link between his decision and the speculation. 

“Nobody has the guts to deny me a party ticket," he told the media when asked whether his action was a pre-emptive step given the uncertainty over his nomination to fight the election.

“I was mulling it for a long time. I have been telling people about this for the last three months and now made it public. My son was pressuring me. He wants me to stay at home, focus on journalism and not to contest the election," said Satpathy, who is the owner and editor of two Odisha-based newspapers — a leading language daily and an English newspaper.    

“There is a need for more fearless voices in journalism now. Distancing myself from politics to refocus on journalism. Grateful to my leader Shri Naveen Patnaik for his support all these years. Realised that politics is not the only means to support people. Social leadership is lacking in this country. Son’s insistence to quit politics won," he later Tweeted.

“I won’t be joining any other political party,” he said and promised to go back to people in his constituency months after the election, hinting at a return to active politics after a short hibernation.

By this statement, Satpathy might have scotched the rumours about his trudging the same path as his peer Baijayant Panda who joined the BJP recently, but the grapevine is agog with talks of his wife, Adyasha, being in the race for a BJP ticket to contest from his pocket borrow Dhenkanal.

Satpathy’s stock in the party was on the decline ever since his rival media baron, Soumya Patnaik, joined the BJD a few months back. Being the owner of the numero uno media house of the state, Patnaik had not only got himself nominated to the Rajya Sabha but was also quickly drafted into the core group of the regional outfit.

Satpathy joined the Janata Dal in 1989 under Biju Patnaik and contested successfully for a Lok Sabha seat in 1998 before losing it a year later. Thereafter, except for a brief stint with the erstwhile Odisha Gana Parishad, he had joined the BJD just about a month before the 2004 elections and has been elected to the Lok Sabha successively since.

Born to an elite political family, Satpathy, known to be brash, outspoken and mercurial, has embraced controversy from a young age — be it his diary noting on his mother or his love elopement even after getting elected as an MLA for the first time in 1990.

He has carried this trait in his long political career spanning more than three decades. Whether it is admission of smoking cannabis while in college and arguing for legalising the substance or parliamentary debate on burning issues like net neutrality, homosexuality and moral policing (much before the Supreme Court struck down part of Section 377 of the IPC), implication of Aadhaar on privacy, impact of GST and demonetisation, the uniform civil code, the land and the Jan Lokpal Bills, Satpathy has always spoken his mind, often deviating from his party stand, though he functioned as the BJD’s chief whip in the 16th Lok Sabha.

He has displayed equal outspokenness in his signed editorials in his publications. Some of the recent coverage in his newspapers has been highly critical of various government programmes, including the flagship pre-poll bonanza for the farmers, the KALIA scheme. He is not far off the mark when he says most of the media in the state are working under the influence of vested interests. Now that he has said, he will give his full attention to his media organisation and journalism, shall it see his publications carry more independent and critical stories on various governance issues — it is something to be watched for.