Democrat with an authoritarian streak

Bhaskar Parichha's book beautifully captures the essence of Biju Patnaik - a man both impatient and irascible, fraught with passion, and a big-picture thinker who eschewed detail

Biju Patnaik: The Rainmaker of Opposition Politics

Author: Bhaskar Parichha

Publisher: Rupa Publications

Pages: 153

Price: Rs 295

Of all the politicians of his generation, the life and times of Biju Patnaik is among the least explored, by academics and political historians alike. His role both in the Congress and the opposition was pivotal. Yet books on him in English can be counted on the fingers of two hands. This is a man who merited an obituary in The Economist that said: “It is worth writing about Biju Patnaik for at least two reasons. His long life can be read as something of a history of India back to the time when the country was run by the British. And he gave Indian politics a rare flash of colour”.

Although he was chief minister of Orissa (as it was then known) for one full five-year term and a second that lasted 27 months, it is he, not some of the longer serving CMs, who represents instant recall for all Odiyas, regardless of class or caste. Most Odiyas in the state’s rural areas still refer to former chief minister Naveen Patnaik as Biju Babu’s son, rather than the state’s CM for 24 years.

Bhaskar Parichha’s book is an attempt to correct this information gap. An updated version of one that came out a few years ago, it describes Patnaik’s feats of derring-do, his internationalism, his passion for politics, his commitment to democracy and the breadth of his vision for his beloved state.

First, a few drawbacks of the book.

It could do with an editor. Biju Patnaik’s lunch for Sir Stafford Cripps was meant to guide his mentor-turned-baiter, Harekrushna Mahtab, through social niceties and etiquette. Except that throughout the entertaining description of the meal, Cripps is referred to as Sir Cripps and not Sir Stafford. Mahtab’s majority after India’s second general election is described as “prickly”. Maybe the author meant to say “precarious”. He describes the relationship between Mahtab and Patnaik as “beyond reproach”. Perhaps it should have read “beyond repair”.

Second, while the book is about Biju Patnaik, it lacks detail about the land that Patnaik was born to and ruled over. It would have been helpful to get some detail and colour about Orissa’s socio-economic profile, why it was so hard to industrialise it and why it remained insulated by the happenings in neighbouring West Bengal where Congress and Communist governments undertook political and economic decisions that changed the landscape of the state. His breezy reference to Ganjam as a Communist stronghold does not explain how it became one nor how an avowed anti-Communist like Patnaik was elected from here.

The author does refer to the origins of the political faultlines between western and coastal Odisha and the impact the division of Seraikela and Kharsawan had on the psyche of Odisha. Patnaik’s emotional and repeated threats that Orissa would be forced to secede from India if it did not get its due was all very well. But the state did not get its due and the author puts the blame for this on Patnaik’s associates such as George Fernandes and K P Unnikrishnan who did not keep their promise to expand railways and develop the Paradip Port. Did the Orissa government really press its case? In this aspect the book has you thirsting for more.

But the essence of Biju Patnaik— impatient, irascible, fraught with passion and the big-picture man who didn’t want to be bothered with detail — is captured beautifully. Enough is known about Patnaik the aviator. Legend has it that on his 79th birthday, when a journalist asked him about how he would choose to die, he answered: “I would like to die in an air crash rather than from prolonged illness. I would like to die instantly — just fall down and die”. The book describes his childhood fascination for aircraft, his affection for the Royal Indian Air Force that won him the respect of the British, especially his efforts to evacuate British families from Rangoon (Yangon) when the Japanese invaded Myanmar during World War II. And, of course, his contribution to Indonesia’s freedom movement against the Dutch is the stuff of legend.

Biju Patnaik and Jawaharlal Nehru held each other in great regard. But the author says Patnaik was aware that Indira Gandhi “hated” him. This inability to get along with “Indu” would dog his politics even after Mrs Gandhi’s assassination: It is well known that he was one of the moving spirits behind the Janata Dal. But the author reminds us that he stood with V P Singh and tried to prevent Chandra Shekhar from becoming prime minister because he had the Congress’s support.

His style of dealing with political opponents was interesting. When state government employees assaulted him after he withdrew their perks, Patnaik did not hold the assault against them. However, younger members of the government and party saw this and used it to form pockets of dissent that Patnaik ended by the simple expedient of showing them the door.

Because Patnaik was a businessman as well as a socialist, he knew both sides of the story. He set up an airline, a steel plant and wanted more of them. He did not hesitate to privatise even profit making state-run entities at a time when privatisation was an unmentionable word. But despite protracted negotiations with Swaraj Paul, a second steel plant remained a dream for his state.

The author’s summing up of Patnaik’s personality is masterly. He says Patnaik was considered a patriot but he was also something of a jingoist. He was a democrat with an authoritarian streak. He was “perceived as a leader sworn to uphold social justice, but cast in a paternalistic manner”. This is an invaluable book for those seeking to understand the politics of Orissa and Biju Patnaik’s role in it.