While playing the issue of corruption to the public gallery, he spoke extensively on the successive scams -- Cash-for-vote scam, 2G spectrum scam and CWG scam -- under the UPA rule and highlighted its inability to bring back lakhs of crores of black money stashed in tax havens. However, he did not make any direct or indirect reference to the state of affairs in Orissa.
Responding to newspersons’ query about the series of scams during Naveen Patnaik’s regime, Advani said, "Since the yatra is a pan-India campaign, the overall focus should ideally be on the issue of corruption at the Centre. But, so far as the corruption in the states is concerned, we are concerned with the states we rule." He quickly added, “The state leadership would answer them.”
Answering a question on the “possibility” of a BJP-BJD alliance in future, the octogenarian leader said, “It is a speculative question...I am not ruling out anything, though at the moment the relations between the two have become tense."
Advani’s move was meticulously planned, carefully scripted and skilfully calculated. By maintaining a stoic silence on the scam-tainted Patnaik government, the BJP veteran has hurled broad hints for reviving ties with the BJD. This is not to dispute that during the BJP-BJD honeymoon days, Patnaik was Advani’s blue eyed boy and was enjoying a status which none of the other senior Orissa BJP leaders had.
Today, at a time when the BJP leader is apparently projecting himself as a prime ministerial candidate, he sees an opportunity in re-cultivating Patnaik and his BJD.
It’s been a couple of days since Advani made those comments. But the after effect is refusing to die down. The resentment in the state unit is evident. As Ashok Sahu, vice president of Orissa BJP bluntly puts, “It would have been better had Advaniji made comments on the Himalayan corruption of the Naveen Patnaik government”.
Advani’s move has put the state BJP in a tight spot. This has made the task of BJP leaders in Orissa difficult to face both the press and the public ahead of the crucial Panchayat polls. They are unable defend Advani’s political faux pas. I hope they are still busy in answering a circle of questions. The party cadres in Orissa are saddened and demoralised. It is now a challenge for the state leaders to convince irked party cadres. But has Advani gone wrong in wooing Naveen? Can the BJP afford to rejoin hands with the BJD? As a keen observer of Orissa politics, I must search the answers for future in a timeline from the past to the present. Just read on...
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