Law Kumar Mishra
August 4 is the death anniversary of the most powerful Chief Minister Mrs Nandani Satpathy of Orissa. During my “Naukari” in the Times of India at Bhubaneswar, I had the professional privilege to learn lessons in politics and administration from the Iron lady.
After learning that she had literally escaped from Capital Hospital, where she was admitted and failed to get evening “medicine”, I went to see her in her government bungalow on Capital hospital road leading to Gopbandhu chak road. There was no security for the ex-CM. Even the then Chief Minister, Biju Patnaik was without security both in his Forest Park private residence, on road or in the Secretariat.
I drove my Fiat near the portico, pressed the call bell and was welcomed by a woman who was her maid and conducted into the drawing room with an assurance “Madam is coming”.
Mrs Satpathy came and I took advantage of my “friendship” with her MLA son, Tathagat. I saw an old iron almirah and inquired about it. She said, “tumhare paas time hai?” I responded positively. It was in contrast to the present generation of even zilla parishad members, who have no time for their constituents. I was offered tea and a heavy breakfast to continue the talk. Madam told me this almirah has a rich history. It used to be full with currency notes and I was responsible for distribution to the assembly election candidates.
Madam was known as a strong administrator. She admitted, “Yes, my first job as CM was to ensure dismissal of the Chief Secretary.” But a Chief Minister cannot dismiss an IAS officer. The iron lady smiled and replied, “Indira (then PM) had asked the same question. I reminded her I have simply fulfilled your desire. When you had visited Kalahandi, you were upset with poor relief and had commented who is relief commissioner, obviously an incompetent officer, and when I became chief minister, the same incompetent was Chief secretary. I reminded her that the dismissal order was signed by PM on the file with recommendations of the then DOPT Secretary R K Trivedi. Before PM, I had received a call from an angry Sanjay Gandhi and I had to tell him, ‘ask Indira’.
During Collectors conference, once she simply pulled her spectacle and without intention came into direct eye to eye contact with a DM. I came to know this particular collector told his colleagues it appears madam is not happy with me, she may suspend me, the officer had to be suspended to instill a sense of fear among other officers.
Mrs Nandani Satpathy was equally sensitive. A woman DM of Dhenkanal was in her family way. CM replaced DM’s Ambassador with a makeshift ambulance as collector’s official Vehicle.
She was equally tough with her political colleagues. Once she came to know that some Congress MLAs with Samajwadi background were attempting to revolt and join hands with JP. They had arranged a meeting of PAC at Balasore led by Banka Bihari Das. She recalls, “I went to Bhadrak police station, instructed the inspector to go on the highway, check all government vehicles and direct the leaders to me. The potential rebels of the party came to me, I offered them tea and one liner for them. Those willing to quit the Congress can move ahead, others should return to Bhubaneswar. None moved ahead and before I could reach the state capital, they were back to the pavilion.”
She had won the trust of Indira Gandhi in 1966 when she was attached to the PMO. Her replies on a question on atomic energy in the Parliament brought her closer to Indira Gandhi, who asked, “Nandani you are a student of literature, did you study atomic energy too? She told her, “After getting the question from parliament, I took a flight to Bombay, visited BARC, intersected with our experts and JRD too, tried to get their replies on possible supplementaries.” This helped her during extended question time, she did not depend on the Babus!
At Kama Gata Maru Nagar AICC session, son stroke led to distrust. Indira Gandhi asked her to control her son and she quickly reacted, “All mothers should control their sons.” She joined Congress for Democracy led by Jagjiwan Ram and the friendship between two iron ladies crashed.
(The author is a senior journalist and has worked in Odisha as Times of India Correspondent)
