Bhubaneswar: When media baron and politician Soumya Ranjan Patnaik wrote a front-page column in his leading Odia newspaper, taking a humble dig at Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, he might have guessed that it would set off a political storm. But the 68-year-old MLA of Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal (BJD) never shied away from making a nest of hornets with his pen. This is why despite his 25 years in politics, he is primarily known as a journalist in Odisha.
The column of Soumya Ranjan, who edits Odisha’s leading daily newspaper ‘Sambad’ and also runs a news channel, touched upon the burning issue of COVID deaths in the state. The column, titled ‘Cheating even after becoming first in class’, published on Thursday, has sparked widespread outrage in his party BJD, as it claims that the state government has hidden the actual number of people who have died of COVID-19. . Opposition BJP and Congress have described Soumya Ranjan as the latest poster boy of integrity in politics.
Although a long first paragraph praised Naveen Patnaik’s political leadership and his administrative skills, mentioning how it brought him global fame, the column’s central point was not lost on anyone, least of all from his party BJD. It accused Naveen Patnaik’s administration of implying that the CM deliberately kept the high COVID death count low so as not to lose the chances of more appreciation.
“The death toll due to COVID in our state is very less in view of our low population as compared to the national figures. If we look at the total number of deaths in the country now, it is very less. Therefore, disclosing the actual death (in Odisha) does us no harm. On the contrary, efforts by the administration to hide it are undermining the dignity of governance,” wrote Soumya Ranjan, son-in-law of former Odisha Congress CM JB Patnaik in his column.
Apart from this column, in which he also urged Naveen Patnaik to bring out a white paper on the actual number of COVID deaths and thus “show his courage”, Soumya Ranjan also spoke about a full page of his newspaper’s report of allegedly hiding. dedicated to. COVID deaths across Odisha.
Although the state government claims that 4,018 people have died of COVID-19 so far – 1,876 in the first wave and 2,142 in the second wave this year – the opposition BJP and Congress say the actual number is more than double. They rely on data collected from cremation grounds across Odisha and data obtained through RTI. The number of daily cremations in many places this year exceeded the official statewide daily death toll on certain days.
“Ironically, the cunning of the state administration came to the fore due to some innovative schemes of the government such as the CM offering special benefits to children orphaned by the COVID pandemic. The right hand of the administration does not know what the left hand is doing. We do not know how much the honorable Chief Minister knows about it,” wrote Soumya Ranjan in his column.
He further wrote: “The way of working of the Chief Minister is also different. Unlike other politicians, he does not like being among party workers and people. He prefers to work through a handful of political loyalists and bureaucrats. The pandemic has further limited it.” Soumya Ranjan also asked, “Is the CM under the kind of pressure that a meritorious student feels after coming first in the class?”
Now that the opposition BJP and Congress have thanked Soumya Ranjan for writing the column, she herself has refused to comment on it. BJD leaders are buoyed by the developments, privately terming his act as “dualism” and openly asking him to offer the “real death toll” if he has collected it. In Odisha, where media and politics are often familiar, many see the plight of Soumya Ranjan essentially as the status of a good journalist, who is unable to reconcile her role as a politician of a ruling party. fails.
“With her column, Saumya Ranjan has done her job well as an editor, but as a ruling BJD politician she has started indiscipline in the party. When he was in Congress, he wrote a column criticizing Rahul Gandhi, for which he faced a committee to consider disciplinary action against him and eventually left the Congress. Now it seems that he has directly targeted CM and BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik,” said political observer Prasanna Mohanty.
Veteran journalist Akshay Kumar Sahu said: “Soumya Ranjan sticks to her roots. He is always a journalist first and a politician later. This keeps appearing from time to time.” Sahu said the BJD is unlikely to take any action against him at the moment.
BJP state general secretary Prithviraj Harichandan thanked Soumya Ranjan for expressing what the BJP state executive had said in his resolution three days ago. “While 250 to 300 bodies were being cremated every day at various graveyards in Odisha, the state government used to give the daily toll of 25 to 30. By hiding the death toll, the state government is depriving the beneficiaries of the central government schemes. their kin,” he said. Senior Congress MLA and former minister Suresh Rautere praised Soumya Ranjan, saying that “no BJD minister, MP or MLA dared to speak”.
However, ruling BJD chief whip Pramila Mallick said, “The government has not withheld any information regarding the COVID deaths. Ask him (Soumya Ranjan) where is it hidden and if he knows then give details.
Soumya Ranjan, who revolutionized the journalism landscape in Odisha by starting ‘Sambad’ newspaper in 1984, was elected to Lok Sabha in 1996 as Congress MP in Bhubaneswar. After leaving the party in 2013, he changed his NGO ‘Ama Odisha’. A political party that aims to provide an alternative to the BJD. In March 2018, he merged his party with the BJD and was immediately nominated to the Rajya Sabha. He contested the 2019 state election and became a BJD MLA.
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