Times of India, May 28, 2009
BHUBANESWAR: Ironic as it may appear, but Congress leader Srikant Jena's induction into the Manmohan Singh ministry on Thursday provided BJD with
fresh ammunition to raise the Central neglect bogey.
"Successive Congress governments at the Centre have badly neglected Orissa's proper representation in the Centre," chief minister and BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik said shortly after Jena, the Balasore MP, was sworn in by President Pratibha Patel.
Losing little time to nail down the opposition Congress, Naveen observed that expansion of the Union ministry reflected the Congress' "attitude" towards Orissa, which should have got more representation.
His observation in a way gave vent to the public mood in the state, in the wake of Tamil Nadu (nine), West Bengal (eight), Madhya Pradesh (four) and Bihar (three) getting good representation in the Union government. Even smaller states like Himachal Pradesh (two), Meghalaya (two) have done better than Orissa, while neighbouring Jharkhand has got a Cabinet berth.
While Naveen, who had made Central neglect an issue in the recently concluded polls, clearly attempted to wrest the political initiative from his rivals by crying foul over only one MP from the state gaining entry into the UPA government, state Congress leaders too were not enthusiastic at Jena's induction as a minister of state.
"It is sad Orissa has not got a cabinet minister. It should have got one because Congress has got six MPs from the state," pointed senior Congress leader Narasingha Mishra, who lost unsuccessfully contested for the Bolangir Lok Sabha seat. "We should hope that in future Orissa will get a cabinet minister," he said.
Pertinent to note, when the UPA government came to power in 2004 nobody from Orissa found place in the ministry, but subsequently Chandrasekhar Sahu was taken in as a minister of state.
While Jena has preferred not to publicly express his disappointment at his "demotion" (he was Union Cabinet minister twice before in the 1990s), Congress leaders said the Balasore MP had little choice but to accept whatever was offered to him. Sundargarh MP Hemananda Biswal and Kalahandi MP Bhakta Charan Das, both of whom were contenders for a position in the Manmohan dispensation, welcomed Jena's entry.
"I hope the Congress leadership will consider it in future," remarked Biswal when pointed out that he was the only former CM who had not found a berth in the ministry that included nine ex-CMs.
State BJP chief Suresh Pujari termed Orissa poor representation in the Union ministry as "unfortunate" and said, "Considering that Orissa has a lot of problems adequate representation is required at the Centre to solve those."
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