Politics can go to any such ridiculous depth of obscurity, can well be seen and heard from what had happened on Monday when former Biju Jnata Dal leader Baijayant Panda joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in New Delhi. After wearing the saffron Panda said that ‘it was a twenty two years wait’ and as if a dream-come-true achievement he had been hankering for.
Strange that after over two decade long abandon he has felt the pain and terror of being in a party like BJD under Naveen Patnaik. That would not sound fair from a person who was a witness to the happenings in Naveen Niwas backroom either it was any fabulous success or disorder. Panda was an ubiquitous face there for long when , perhaps, he had chosen to stay with his blinkers on. See no wrong, listen to no stupid and sit with an adhesive on the mouth.
If this enlightenment has come to him only in last four years that he was in a school of wrong-doers led by Naveen Patnaik, then how he would describe the rest 18 years of bonhomie with the BJD as an insider catapulting himself to several pulpits as an ardent Naveen follower. Or he was bodily in BJD and his soul was in the BJP, or he was merely a BJP acolyte passing time in BJD. It appears like a jigsaw puzzle. But he has to face such questions in the days to come.
After wearing the saffron apron, the display of triumphalism on his face and self-back-patting before the media can not hide the reality that Panda was desperate for a solace. Then, an overwhelmed Panda goes to the extent of foreseeing that it is only Narendra Modi’s leadership that can ensure the safety of national interest and emancipate Odisha from the clutches of the BJD ‘misrule’.
By saying that it was a 22 years of wait for him, he, himself, has made an assault on his claim of being a fair player. Why was he waiting for 22 years ? This one-liner must have surprised the cadres within the BJP also.
