Team News Riveting
Despite supporting the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government on important issues in the Houses, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) firmly opposed the farm bills.
The BJP managers were thinking otherwise. The message from the BJD was clear; don’t take the ruling party of Odisha for an assumption. Senior party leaders said it played on the ‘surprise’ element effectively and signalled that its support on crucial legislations could not be taken for granted by the NDA.
Patnaik had supported the Centre on the CAA or revocation of Article 370 in Kashmir. The BJP was of the impression that the BJD would back the government on the crucial farm bills that Prime Minister Narendra Modi described today as new reforms were road to the 21st century.
The BJP managers failed to understand that Kashmir and farm issues had different dimensions for the BJP. The CAA and article 370 had nothing to do with the voters directly in Odisha but the farm bill has the potential to seriously backfire.
Odisha being a primarily agrarian state, Patnaik had worked to keep farmers happy. Agriculture and allied sectors contribute more than 21 per cent to the net state domestic product, providing employment, directly and indirectly to more than 70 per cent of the population.
The BJP is wary while dealing with the farmers’ issue. For, it still believed farmers’ protests in the western parts of the state is one of the reasons why the party cannot perform in the last Lok Sabha elections; making way for the BJP.
