Patnaik, Pandian, And The Intriguing Story Of Odisha Politics

Despite his humble origins, he determinedly studied while being in a government-run sports hostel in Neyveli, in the Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu. In later years, the late 1990s, he studied hard and sprinted harder, becoming the university athletics champion in both 800-meter and 1500-meter races.

The same remarkable grit and stamina are on display even decades later as the 2000-batch IAS officer brazens out cascading criticism and persistent scrutiny over his supposedly ‘outsized’ influence as the private secretary to Odisha’s longest serving chief minister, Naveen Patnaik.

More than the boss, the secretary has been in the news in recent months. Patnaik, 76, is reportedly unwell and doesn’t travel much these days. Instead, Pandian is touring the interiors of the state, rekindling speculations about positioning himself as a potential successor to the Odisha patriarch.

A Tamilian by birth, Pandian came to Odisha after his cadre was changed following his marriage to an Odia IAS officer, Sujata Rout. Rout is currently a secretary in charge of Mission Shakti – the state’s flagship programme for empowering women through Self-Help Groups (SHGs). There are some 6 lakh women SHGs in the state, which have become the bedrock of political support for Patnaik and his Biju Janata Dal (BJD) party.

Under normal circumstances, no one would expect a non-Odia to helm the state. Yet, chatter grows by the day about Pandian’s ambitions as he goes crisscrossing the state in serpentine convoys and occasionally, on helicopters, amid elaborate security arrangements usually reserved for top political leaders.

That an unelected official is travelling with such fanfare and addressing large public rallies dressed in BJD’s colour code of green and white have outraged many.

“He is no more an IAS officer. He should formally join politics,” a former bureaucrat and BJP’s Member of Parliament Aparajita Sarangi told a news conference recently. Others in the opposition parties have joined the chorus of protests, including Bijay Patnaik, who was once a close confidant of both Naveen and his father, late Biju Patnaik, and had served as the Chief Secretary of the state. Bijay Patnaik, who recently joined the Congress party, and Sarangi are among several others who have petitioned the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) under the Government of India for punitive action against Pandian.

But this has not stopped Pandian from being relentless, visiting a town like Balasore one day and then Angul, about 200 kilometers away, the next day. Of late, at the public meetings he addresses, Pandian has started playing a recorded audio message from the chief minister instructing him to visit the districts and attend to public grievances.

TURNING POINT

That Pandian has been a trusted confidant of Patnaik has never been in doubt. Invariably seen at public functions closely along with Naveen Patnaik – a bachelor with few friends and no family in Bhubaneswar – Pandian has been fiercely loyal since he was drafted into the chief minister’s secretariat in 2011. Controlling almost all access to the reticent Patnaik, his clout has only grown with even ministers and Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) queuing up before Pandian’s room at one end of a long corridor for an audience with the chief minister.

Patnaik too has enabled the 49-year-old Pandian in great measure. Soon after winning a record fifth term in 2019 elections, the chief minister appointed Pandian also as the 5T secretary, tasked with bringing about transparency across all government departments. Though no 5T department exists, it allowed Pandian – a mid-level bureaucrat in seniority - to call for every file and intervene in all government projects.

Grapevine has it that nothing moves in Odisha’s corridor of power without Pandian’s nod. His writ reportedly extends even to the ruling BJD, the top leadership of which he is supposed to have packed with his chosen people.

It, therefore, has come as no surprise that top BJD leaders have readily sprung to Pandian’s defence now. “The chief minister for some reason cannot visit. Instead, the chief minister’s office (CMO) is going to the people. There is no impropriety here,” insisted a senior ruling party leader, who did not wish to be named.

But what the BJD leaders have not conveniently mentioned is that Pandian is not the CMO. According to Odisha CMO website, there are some 15 officials serving there and Pandian is not the senior-most. His name is listed second. So, it means if some official from the CMO had to represent the chief minister, it should not have ordinarily been Pandian, but the official who is the most senior.

WHAT NEXT?

No credible explanations have, however, been forthcoming as Pandian continues to be firmly in the spotlight, without any care for bureaucratic propriety. He has managed to cultivate enough clout to be effectively unchallenged for the time being.

So, what happens to the complaints lodged against him with the DoPT? Well, nothing.

The DoPT, upon receiving the complaints, have forwarded them to the Odisha Chief Secretary Pradeep Kumar Jena, who in turn has forwarded them for necessary action to Surendra Kumar, the secretary to the state department for General Administration. All IAS officers in Odisha serve the chief minister, and by extension, his CMO. Under the circumstances, can someone dare challenge the CM and the CMO’s authority?

It is quite clear that Pandian would continue to wield power so long as he enjoys Patnaik’s trust. Distrustful of even his partymen who could challenge him someday, Patnaik has always fallen back on people from the bureaucracy to do his bidding. In earlier times, it was one Pyarimohan Mohapatra who ran the party’s affairs for Patnaik since he became the president of the BJD, founded and named after his father – one of Odisha’s most celebrated leaders - who died in 1997.

There was one key difference, however. Mohapatra had joined the party after retiring from the service. He was expelled from the party in November 2012, following allegations that he was planning to stage a coup against the CM. For a brief period, after Mohapatra’s exit and before Pandian began to take charge of CMO affairs, Patnaik had a couple of IAS officers to fill the gap.

It has been more than a decade since Pandian has remained as Patnaik’s closest and most trusted aide. And for now, a popular Patnaik seems to have no immediate reason to stop patronizing him. Pandian and his IAS wife Sujata remain Odisha’s undisputed power couple.

Ruben Banerjee is the former Editor-in-Chief of Outlook magazine and the author of ‘Naveen Patnaik’ – an unauthorised biography of the Odisha chief minister.