By D.N. Singh
One must admire the patience and perseverance of the former Biju Janata Dal leader Baijayant Panda, former member of Parliament from Kendrapada, for desisting from any sobbing feats and quietly making his mission nearly clear. Back to politics.
Through a small video clip Panda alluded to Kendrapada as his home ground for the next bout against the BJD, now in his firing lines. Panda, hailing from an industrial family surely has not come to politics to become a sage but do politics and deliver as per the parameters of the present day politics where, if someone claims sainthood is a lie.
That way, Panda has every reason to be upset with the ruling dispensation in Odisha and indulge in verbal brick-batting for last two years almost. He has not taken the route to ‘sanyas’ or something like hanging his gloves. Nor has he indulged in any kind of hypocrisy over his enmity with Naveen Patnaik. Maybe his style of politics manifest different modalities not in tune with the politics of the day. But, is he really serious about what has said. The end result is going to be an interesting thing for the political observers here if he really dares to take the bull by the horns or opt to become a moth to the flame.
In the video clip, Panda sounds clear that his heart bleeds for the people of Kendrapada who had blessed him to reach up to a certain pulpit and serve them. The allusion is clear although Panda is little short of being explicit.
All said and done, Panda can not run away from the reality that he must revisit his core strength. Because, he knows that politics now can not be handled by rhetoric or soothsaying or by mere vitriol aimed at the enemy.
Now it has become a profession without any demarcations bound by any moral cornerstone. It has completely become a different ball game which enjoys imperceptibility blended with pretensions and lies.
He left the BJD alone, then many others like Damodar Rout and Braja Kishore Tripathy and so on came to join the chorus. Even leaders like Kharavela Swain also jumped into the ring. So many outfits were announced and pledges were heard to fight the common enemy. But at one time or the other each of them had rued that Panda always slips out of the combinations.
Perhaps, Panda has in mind to go it alone and fight the Kendrapada Lok Sabha seat as an independent candidate rather than disappear like a moth.
