Bhubaneswar, Sept. 6: It now stands almost bulldozed, at least as it apparently appears. Yes, we are talking about the women vote bank Biju Janata Dal (BJD), the 1997-born regional party of Odisha that ruled Odisha for over 24 years.
Subhandra Yojana, the famed scheme of Mohan Majhi government, has almost made wide and expansive cracks on the 70 lakh-plus women vote bank which once appeared impregnable.
The over enthusiasm of women, in both cities and rural areas to avail Subhadra Yojana’s financial benefit of Rs 50,000 over a period of five years and in 10 installments, has send out a crystal message to the BJD that, like gravels get crunched beneath the wheels of heavy motor vehicle, its citadel of women vote bank, now has got hammered to millions of pieces. And, these pieces are beginning to get reassembled in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJD).
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the key architect of Subhadra Yojana, was the first hammerman. His emphatic declaration in all his public rallies on the eve of 2024 Lok Sabha and assembly elections in the state made the first cracks upon which the other star campaigners made the further improvements. So much so that the 77-year-old Naveen Patnaik now finds himself at his wits’ end on how to keep hold of women flock.
It’s no denial of the fact that Naveen Patnaik had started the Mission Shakti programme with a noble mission for women empowerment. The programme got further credence and credibility, also more governance validity and recognition, when the BJD government made Mission Shakti a separate department. But what followed is quite disgraceful. The BJD shamelessly engaged the members of Mission Shakti in its own political activities. The members, with little opportunity to disagree, were forced to fall in line. Those who protested were framed on false charges and punished.
V Karthikeyan Pandian, who headed an invalid department called 5T, was seen posing himself as the messiah of women. Many of the gullible women also put faith in his leadership, presuming that he will salvage them from the morass and muddle of impoverishment. His wife was also made secretary of Mission Shakti department amid the buzz that she might be projected as the BJD’s chief-ministerial candidate.
On the eve of the Lok Sabha and assembly polls, the BJD treated the women folks like its own party people. The Naveen Patnaik government also equally considered them as its unpaid employees. Women were carried in large numbers to V Karthikeyan Pandian’s election rallies. Everyone, including the so-called intellectuals, remained mute spectators when Pandian was brazenly playing with the sentiments of Odia women.
Wasn’t Naveen Patnaik, who claimed himself the master of all Odias, aware of this? If he was, - why did he keep his mouth stitched when all these aberrations were being committed by Pandian, his stooges and a few other unscrupulous persons – both government and private?
Truth triumphs! And, God sees the truth and waits. Modi’s carpet bombing on the eve of the polls destroyed the Naveen-Pandian designs and nipped the evils.
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