How BJP won in Tripura?

In an interview in early January, when asked if the BJP could challenge and replace the CPM in Tripura, the state’s longest serving chief minister, Manik Sarkar, laughed. “Challenge? Replace? You go and ask the people. And you will know the answer.” On March 3, 2018, the people of Tripura answered, bringing to an end 25 years of uninterrupted CPM rule in the state and the 20-year-old reign of Sarkar.

Government employees were unhappy because they were still on fourth pay commission salaries. The BJP promised them a hike, committing to implement the Seventh Pay Commission and that worked overwhelmingly in the BJP’s favour. Young students were unhappy because they felt Tripura was missing out on modernity and jobs or because they felt the CPM cadre were getting all the jobs that were available. The BJP presented itself an alternative which would bring vikas (development).

"Chief Minister Manik Sarkar can’t use use a smart phone. He refused to meet CEOs of top IT companies that we mobilised during the 2015 Tripura conclave just before Agartala became India's third gateway", says Saumen Sarkar, Vice President, Bank of America (IT solutions), who hails from Tripura. Sarkar organised the one-day brainstorming session, that is, the Tripura Conclave, and his efforts to mobilise several top IT majors went to waste when the state government did not play ball.

Sarkar’s biggest asset was his clean image and projection of austerity which didn't help in this elections. For Sarkar it has been a cruel good-bye, for the state has shifted to his most bitter ideological rival.

It would be preposterous to treat the results in the recent assembly elections in the three North Eastern states—Nagaland, Meghalaya and Tripura—as a barometer for the Lok Sabha elections 2019 in these states. In Nagaland (12 seats) and Meghalaya (2 seats), the BJP can only hope to be an ally of the winners. Before the results were declared on March 3, 2018, it would have been difficult for many to believe that the BJP would win 12 seats in the staunchly Christian Nagaland. 

• In Tripura BJP won 35 seats, BJP's ally IPFT won 8 seats and CPM 16 seats. Congress lost in all seats.
• Nearly 44 candidates in the BJP list in Tripura were ex-Congressmen. 
• The saffron party inflicted a humiliating defeat on the Left Front which had never faced such a situation even when it had lost power in 1988.
• The fact that the BJP has got a majority on its own means it would not concede to its ally IPFT’s demand for a separate state ‘Twipraland’.
• The 2019 result will therefore depend on how secure the uneasy partnership between the BJP and the Indigenous People’s Front Tripura remains. 
• Poor farmers live in fear of the revival of a tribal insurgency and credit CM Manik Sarkar for tackling it in the last decade.
• The BJP’s clean sweep in Agartala also proves that middle-class Bengalis, fed up with the lack of job creation by previous governments, also voted decisively against the Left.
• The BJP has its eye firmly on the 25 Lok Sabha seats from the north-eastern States and that its ambitions are grounded.
• Manik Sarkar was fighting a grossly unequal fight. On one side was the CM standing alone  with no money backing him, and on the other side was the “world’s largest” party the BJP, with plenty of money power and which is ruling the Centre. When CPM is refusing to have an electoral understanding with the Congress, how can it win against the BJP?
• BJP deployed 52 union ministers in Tripura during the campaign. The aim was to boost confidence of the cadre who were up against arch rivals, Left.
• The role of the RSS is important in this victory. Some senior workers were sent to BJP to work in Tripura since two years. Sunil Deodhar was the incharge of BJP in Tripura. The amounts of money spent by BJP is mind boggling too.
• The Congress’ vote share dropped from 36.5% in 2013 to 1.8% now. The BJP’s vote share rose from 1.5% to 43.0%. CPM vote share dwindled from 48% to 42.7% votes. The sheen of the BJP's spectacular win was at the cost of Congress rather than the Left. The BJP managed to swallow up the entire opposition space rather than making any drastic inroads into the traditional Left vote base.

Unless different parties with varied ideologies chalk out a common programme, they can't seriously and effectively challenge the BJP.

Telangana New Secretariat & CM's Residence - Matter of shame

• Earlier KCR constructed his official home 40,000 Sft, Camp office 40,000 sft and Meeting Hall 15,000 sft, with 200 car parking in a 9 Acre plot in Begumpet, Hyderabad at a cost of over Rs.100 crores and all inclusive cost would be over Rs.1,000 crores. What he will do in 40,000 sft home, is difficult to guess.
• Now he is venturing to construct a new secretariat with 6,00,000 Sft at Bison Grounds, Secunderabad at an all inclusive cost of over Rs. 5,000 crores.
• What extra work he will do in this palatial complexes whose maintenance will be borne by Telangana tax payers is nothing much significant. He could have done same work in the existing secretariat and existing CM residence complexes.
• It is a great shame on the part of KCR for squandering public money for private comfort and personal pride. Worse than erstwhile Nizams.

When Indira Gandhi became Prime Minister in 1966, she continued to stay in in the house occupied by her as I&B Minister and took only adjacent building which was for her camp office with a pathway inside. She discarded all imported cars and insisted that all minster including herself use only Ambassador cars and she did so throughout her tenure till death in 1984. She used to say that 'Thrift is my guiding principle'. 

Another living example is Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik. He moved into Naveen Niwas that his father built near the Odisha airport occupying the servant quarters instead of the main building which he converted into his residential office. He is a bachelor. He lives life of austerity wearing only simple white kurta-pyjamas.

Naveen Patnaik, Mr.Clean

Naveen Patnaik,
Chief Minister of Odisha since 2000

• Naveen Patnaik was born on Oct 16, 1946 in Cuttack from Biju Patnaik, former Chief Minister of Odisha. He was classmate of Sanjay Gandhi at Doon School, Dehradun. He lived in USA until 1997, away from politics. Patnaik's interest in art and culture drew him into the charmed circle of the rich and famous including Jacqueline Kennedy Onasis.
• When his father passed away in 1997, the mantle of continuing his political legacy fell on Naveen Patnaik, then 50 years old. He formed the BJD and was elected an MP from his father's constituency in Aska. He said, "I had inherited my father's responsibilities, not privileges. One of the members of his family had to continue his legacy of social responsibility." 
• In the 2000 Odisha assembly elections, the BJD trounced the ruling Congress and won 68 of the 147 seats, just five short of the majority. Patnaik resigned from the Union Ministry, formed an alliance with the BJP in Odisha and took over as Chief Minister. 
• He moved into Naveen Niwas that his father built near the Odisha airport occupying the servant quarters instead of the main building which he converted into his residential office. He is a bachelor. He lives life of austerity wearing only simple white kurta-pyjamas.
• He decided to break the alliance with the BJP in 2009, over Kandhamal communal riots 2008. The BJD contested the elections without any seat sharing arrangements and won a clear majority.
• Now into his fourth consecutive term, Naveen Patnaik has completed 17 years in the saddle and has joined the list of the longest serving chief ministers of the country (The late Jyoti Basu holds the record of being 23 years at the helm in West Bengal).
• In 2014, at the height of the Narendra Modi wave, the BJD won a whopping 117 of the 147 Assembly seats and made a clean sweep of the Lok Sabha seats winning 20 of the 21 seats.
• He is the only chief minister of India who does not speak the regional language of the state. However, he possesses great mastery over the Hindi, French and English. At rallies, he delivers Odia speeches written in Roman alphabet.
• When Patnaik took over in 2000, Odisha had the country's highest poverty level at 59%. By 2012, the poverty level was down to almost half - 32.5% - the highest reduction in poverty among all Indian states during that period.  Under him Odisha's GDP grew an average of 6.66% annually. Per capita income has grown six fold and touched Rs 66,890 last year. Odisha imported rice from Punjab and Haryana in 2000. It now produces surplus rice. Its anti-poverty programmes and welfare schemes for women have been emulated by the rest of India.
• He uses a compact no frills Suzuki SX4 bought by the state government six years ago. He refused to have his office chair refurbished though the leather seat is fraying at the edges. Nor has he changed the floor tiling saying the money is better spent on development works for the people of the state. 
• He bluntly tells his officers to observe 3T's: Team spirit, Transparency, effectively use Technology and put end to PC (percentage commission) culture.  He gave bureaucracy a free hand and encouraged them to come up with innovative solutions.
• In his first meeting with ministers and bureaucrats of the state, he was repelled by their obsequious behavior, saying their only interest was to find out what was his price. He went about cleaning the Augean stables with political astuteness and ruthlessness that surprised all. He was a mild and incorruptible political leader, and his first tenure in office was marked by his attempts to establish a transparent and corruption-free administration. In the process, he had to act against a corrupt bureaucracy and also some senior leaders of the BJD. He focussed on appalling poverty that had beset the state. He would drop ministers even at the hint of a scandal not fearing political consequences.
• Naveen Patnaik was felicitated by the United Nations (UN) for an effort to evacuate nearly a million people ahead of tropical storm, Cyclone Phailin, that made a landfall on coastal Odisha in October 2013.
• Naveen Patnaik's attempts to bring in transparency in the system and his massive drive against corruption in high places, including his own BJD, has given him the epithet of "Mr Clean". An honest, clean and credible image has become more important than the record of economic performance as the key parameter in accounting for the popularity of chief ministers.
• In 2004, Naveen Patnaik, 57, has grabbed the top slot as the best chief minister.  His impeccable credentials: caring and clean image, credibility, accessibility, and leadership qualities are the things that made him most popular Chief Minister.
• Patnaik still remains by far the tallest leader of the state. He remains unwaveringly focussed on the development of the state and pursues it with relentless zeal. He has no ambitions to move to the centre. His frugal lifestyle ensures that he has a squeaky clean reputation though some of his ministers and MLAs are now dogged with charges of scandals and scams. 
• Patnaik remain unfazed by criticism. He says the lessons of the office have taught him to be "attentive to the requirements of the people, to always keep your ears open to their problems and try to deal with them as effectively as he can. If Patnaik follows his simple but effective mantra and sets his party in order, a fifth term should come his way.
• In the recent Panchayat elections, although the ruling BJD won two thirds of the seats, the BJP won a third of the seats saw its vote share shoot up from 16% to 32%. BJP displaced the Congress as the main Opposition party and can pose a threat to the BJD in the 2019 Assembly elections. 
• Today, after 17 year, despite signs of anti incumbency and BJP emerging as a credible alternative, Naveen is still by far the tallest leader of the state remaining unwaveringly focused for development of the state pursuing with relentless zeal. He has no ambitions to move to Delhi. Despite his clean image, there are concerns about autocratic behavior, his reclusiveness, overreliance on coterie and lacking second line of leadership etc had its impact. But he remains nonchalant. If Naveen sets his party in order, a fifth term could be well within his reach in 2019.

Some excerpts from his interview

One must beware of ministers who can do nothing without money, 

and those who want to do everything with money ... Indira Gandhi

Start where you are, with what you have. 

Make something of it and never be satisfied ... George Washington Carver

My View:
Naveen Patnaik inherited shattered economy of Odisha, from Congress in 2000. Without much help from Central Government, he made significant progress since then, even though much more is yet to be done. A media & publicity shy person he is, yet he made impact on the people of Odisha which is a very much better place than he founded it. His presence in social media is very minimum. Modi should learn lots of lessons from him, who has the habit of talking too much and bombards publicity from all corners with selective truths and blatant lies and highlighting even his failures as grand successes. One of the poorest & backward states, Odisha even today with per-capita income (ranks 27 of 33) is significantly lower than national average and is only better than MP, Jharkhand, Assam, Manipur, UP & Bihar. Modi hasn't given any special assistance to Odisha during his 3 years, despite requests from Naveen Patnaik.

Austerity & Frugal Living

A house or any living place which is very simple and undecorated is said to be austere. An austere person is one who lives a simple life, and is strict and serious. If a person lives a very simple life with the minimum comforts, their way of living is austere.

• Austerity is neither poverty nor self-denial. Austerity comes out of maturity. It is a sign of social health. 
• Austerity born out of compulsion results in resentment of richness and is a pitiable state. The true austerity born out of maturity has tolerance for richness and is never resentful.
• Austerity is not against celebration and just vanity is not celebration.
• One who is rich in spirit can practice austerity. One may be rich materially but if he is poor in spirit he can neither celebrate nor evolve. Poverty of spirit is vanity. Austerity brings freedom from the pride of vanity. But taking pride in austerity is again a vanity!
• Austerity comes out of abundance, and austerity brings abundance. If you feel a lack in any area of life, immediately start austerity. Austerity not only brings freedom but nurtures sharing and caring.
• Enjoy life without luxuries and severe simplicity from time to time. Austere living is not an extreme or harsh form of self-denial. Rather, it is a way of cutting costs and distractions, so as to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life. Follow the frugal living rules: know your money, live below your means, know the difference between spending and investing, buy for quality, avoid consumer debt, know the difference between want & need. Never leave an opportunity to walk. Follow frugal living tips.
• Austerity helps making the world a better place. Lavish consumption is about spending and buying things to feel good, frugal consumption is about feeling good by being smarter and spending less; it’s about finding alternatives to the expensive and wastefulness of old-style consumption. Our 'must-have, must-buy' economy is eating into the planet's resources like never before. 
• If ostentatious, excessively indulgent, extravagant living got our planet into the mess it is in right now, then self-control and simplicity is how we will get out of it. 
• Austerity helps to provide equality among all humans, heal the environment, and improve the quality of life for everyone. 
• It should not be such that the rich can take an even greater share of the wealth while pressing global problems continue to be ignored.

A 2012 survey found that 40 percent of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, putting them one car repair or one medical bill away from financial catastrophe. The number of Americans living in poverty equals 16 percent of the population. As the economic crisis drags on, the shop-till-you-drop exuberance that drove the long boom has given way to caution. Americans are deleveraging to reduce their debts to manageable levels. 

Read Personal Austerity Plan

Thrift is my guiding principle ... Indira Gandhi 

That man is rich whose pleasures are cheapest ... Henry David Thoreau

My View:

Living simple is often looked upon as a mark of giving up your ambitions, but the reality is that austerity is a virtue that enriches our lives but also contributes in making this world a better place to live. Simple living ensures that unnecessary things are out of life and focus on factors that affect the quality of life. Money is factor for happiness up to a certain point. Simplicity allows you to see the positive side of life, things that one might never be able to realize when mind is full of clutter. Austerity allows you to stay grounded and prevents you to develop feelings of ego, jealousy, greediness, and negativity. You no longer feel the need of getting into unnecessary competition which is superficial and temporary. Opulent person enjoys riches in life, an austere person leads rich life.