Very huge project

Orissa gets little national attention for the economic transformation it is attempting; a World Bank report a few months back detailed much of what the national media ignores. With the Supreme Court clearing Posco8217;s project, with other big-ticket investment in place and with Navin Patnaik8217;s reformist instincts unblunted through nearly two terms in office, the state is an experiment in a poor province reinventing itself. That must be remembered while analysing the latest violent and apparently religion-inspired clashes in Orissa. The state deserves better than becoming a host to headline-making communal disturbances. That Pravin Togadia, whose political emasculation by Narendra Modi in Gujarat makes him keen on finding other hotspots, has attacked Navin Patnaik is good proof of the administration8217;s impartial handling of the VHP versus Christian missionaries conflicts. The state BJP is often accused by the state VHP of being Patnaik8217;s junior partner. That is good for the BJP. Along with Nitish Kumar in Bihar, Patnaik is a key BJP ally. With general elections coming, the BJP can put its alliance with the BJD under strain only if it decides foolishness is a good strategy. The BJP has four allies now 8212; the Akalis and the almost-gone Trinamul are the other two 8212; and it can scarcely afford to have fewer friends.

Thankfully, the violence is localised and may remain so. The underlying conflict in the Kandhamal district is that between Dailts and tribals; conversion and re-conversion controversies are superstructures on that. The Patnaik government has made some efforts to improve tribals8217; economic opportunities, for example, by cutting out middlemen and abolishing a government monopoly in the tendu leaf trade. Industrial employment and good primary education remain the best economic empowerment formula in Orissa as elsewhere. But on that the Patnaik administration, as administrations elsewhere, has to battle activists opposing big industry and chasing an arcadia.

Complicating and bloodying the picture more are the Naxalites. They are relatively weak in the Kandhamal district and the state being under challenge there suits them fine. Even if they had no hand in the death of the VHP leader, they will be delighted if their influence, especially among tribals, increases in the violence that followed. Militant proselytisers, anti-industry activists, Naxalites 8212; Navin Patnaik has a tough project, but the potential returns are huge, for Orissa and for India.