The world of politics may be riddled with rhetoric, theatrics and polemic, but it is still a world where actions speak louder than words.<\/p>\n
The recent resignation of popular tribal leader Pradeep Majhi from the post of Odisha Pradesh Working Committee working president and his decision to give up his primary membership said much more about the current state of affairs in India\u2019s grand old party than the reassertions of Congress president Sonia Gandhi at the latest Congress Working Committee meeting ever could.<\/p>\n
If this former MP \u2013 one who wields substantial influence among the tribal communities of Nabarangpur, Koraput and Malkangiri \u2013 joins the Biju Janata Dal, as per reports doing the rounds, it will only reconfirm the BJD\u2019s dominant and ever-strengthening position in Odisha\u2019s political landscape.<\/p>\n
BJD president and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik\u2019s decision not to celebrate his birthday in view of the Covid-19 pandemic and its devastating consequences since its onset last year was somewhat expected, given his long-standing reputation and record as a compassionate leader, but that did not stop the people of his state from celebrating the day in their own special ways.<\/p>\n
Amongst the most notable was the 72kg chocolate sculpture that Rakesh Kumar Sahu, a chef who runs an institute of baking and pastry art in Bhubaneswar, created painstakingly over a period of 15 days. As a sports enthusiast, Sahu wanted to pay tribute to the Chief Minister\u2019s unwavering support for Indian Hockey through the years and the spectacular results that followed at the Tokyo Olympics this year.<\/p>\n
Even more interesting was the three acres of lunar land that Jagatsinghpur native Prabir Kumar Pradhan bought from a US-based company that sells real estate on the moon. Pradhan did this in avowed appreciation of the dedication and honesty with which Patnaik has been serving the people of Odisha as its Chief Minister for the past 21 years.<\/p>\n
In sharp contrast to the way the Gandhi family has been undermining the Congress and its future prospects (through a confounding lack of organisation, not to mention the chronic indecisiveness that seems to stem from the dynasty\u2019s rabid determination to retain the party\u2019s reins at all costs), Patnaik continues to bolster the BJD\u2019s support base even when its popularity is at an all-time high.<\/p>\n
Many political observers say the Chief Minister\u2019s recent visits to various districts of the state, where he is distributing smart health cards under the Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana, are aimed at ensuring great results for his party in the panchayat polls coming up next year. They are also pointing out how Patnaik has been touring districts where the Bharatiya Janata Party had performed well during the 2019 elections.<\/p>\n
However, no matter who says what, there can be no denying that those smart health cards \u2013 through which beneficiaries can avail treatment up to Rs 5 lakh (Rs 10 lakh for women) every year \u2013 are nothing but a godsend for a relatively poor state where people often have to sell or mortgage their land and property to meet emergency medical expenses. So, when the Chief Minister says that the main objective behind the launching of those cards is \u201cto save lives\u201d, his people already know that he means each and every word of it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The world of politics may be riddled with rhetoric, theatrics and polemic, but it is still a world where actions speak louder than words. The recent resignation of popular tribal leader Pradeep Majhi from the post of Odisha Pradesh Working Committee working president and his decision to give up his primary membership said much more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11731,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[74,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorial","category-main-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.testctsl.in\/indiafirstepaper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.testctsl.in\/indiafirstepaper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.testctsl.in\/indiafirstepaper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.testctsl.in\/indiafirstepaper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.testctsl.in\/indiafirstepaper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11730"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/demo.testctsl.in\/indiafirstepaper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11732,"href":"https:\/\/demo.testctsl.in\/indiafirstepaper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11730\/revisions\/11732"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.testctsl.in\/indiafirstepaper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.testctsl.in\/indiafirstepaper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.testctsl.in\/indiafirstepaper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.testctsl.in\/indiafirstepaper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}