A Tamilian in Kalinga: Why state pride is at the centre of Odisha’s election
How a Tamil bureacrat-turned-politician became Odisha’s most powerful man.
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During a roadshow in Cuttack, Amit Shah, the Union Home Minister, was asked if he wanted to send a message to Naveen Patnaik, the chief minister of Odisha.
Shah’s response dripped with sarcasm. “It won’t reach him,” he said in Hindi. “I don’t speak Tamil.”
Shah’s brusque reply references the widely accepted idea that Naveen Patnaik, the chief minister of Odisha, has largely retired from public life. Instead, the government and the Biju Janata Dal is being led by V Karthikeyan Pandian, an Indian Administrative Service officer-turned-politcian.
Pandian’s rise to power is unusual given his bureaucratic career. But what is creating even more ripples in Odisha is his ethnicity: Pandian is Tamilian.
Across many states in India, the Bharatiya Janata Party is attacked on the lines of state identity. The rise of Pandian means Odisha is the only state where the boot is on the other foot: the BJP is attacking the Biju Janata Dal for not being Odia enough.
This emotive issue combined with an anti-incumbency sentiment (Patnaik has been chief minister for an astonishing 24 years) means the BJP is on the ascendance in the state of Odisha.
Pandian’s rise
Pandian started his career with the Indian Administrative Service in 2000 as part of the Punjab cadre. But he soon got that...
