MAJHI'S TEAM CAN INDULGE IN ‘SELF-PRAISE' ACTS ONLY AFTER SHOWING SUBSTANTIAL RESULTS !

The Odisha BJP biggies tomtoming that they have installed a highly efficient ‘Santhali' chief minister for the eastern state is gravely misplaced.  Mohan Majhi has long since forgotten his roots and become a staunch Hindu. He visits the Jagannatha temple, screams the ‘Jai Jagannatha’ slogan before public discourses, quite offending his ‘Santhali’ deities that are only trees, stones and the natural elements. He has brazenly given away 500 crore rupees from the public coffers, which is kind of criminal and challengeable in the courts of law. The point being driven is that he is not a true aboriginal tribesman, though his family may have been availing all the ‘scheduled tribe’ benefits. As many would not know that staunch ‘Santhals' merrily eat beef and pork apart from several other frightening species of fauna, which should routinely bar them from entering a few ancient temples that allow only orthodox Hindu individuals into precinct of the shrines. Gentleman chief minister Majhi has not studied well the basics of religious rituals. He is most certainly not a true aboriginal tribesman.

As soon as the noble-minded Mohan Majhi was installed in the CM's throne, he seemed to have lost much of mental equilibrium. Getting the four doors of a Hindu temple open, and giving away huge amount of money to a rich temple have nothing to do with development.

The next impractical thing Majhi began wasting precious time on was holding ‘grievance durbars' as if the state administrative machinery had collapsed completely. The district level functionaries including the collectors and down below up to the ranks of BDOs, sub-collectors and tehsildars apart from scores of civic and other officials could be laughing to their heart’s content as the chief executive was enjoying the donkey job like mad, which could never ever yield any desired results. The gentleman tribal chief minister, instead of focusing on critical issues of governance, seems to be enormously enjoying the role of a field trouble shooter, which proves beyond doubt, that he does not understand governance.

The Mohan Majhi-led BJP government, which marked its first anniversary in June 2025, has faced criticism over issues like administrative inertia, coordination challenges, and a decline in central grants for schemes like ‘Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana' and ‘Jal Jeevan Mission'- having come down by 18% from Rs 21,500 crore in 2023-24 to Rs 17,000 crore now. These have been cited as affecting governance and revenue generation, potentially impacting voter sentiment. The opposition Biju Janata Dal has criticized the government over incidents like the Gopalpur gangrape case, questioning its handling of law and order, particularly women’s safety. Development achievements and ‘public engagement' are seen to be dismally poor. Yet Majhi’s team has been patting own back for fulfilling key electoral promises, such as the Subhadra scheme which has empowered over 1.6 million women as ‘Lakhpati Didis’; and increasing the agriculture budget to Rs.38,900 crore, doubling it from the previous BJD government’s allocation. His approachable leadership style, job creation efforts resulting in 73,346 jobs in a single year;  and industrial investments of Rs 17 lakh crore have been highlighted as incomparable positives.

Several X posts mention criticism over delivery and administrative challenges. Though there is no direct polling data or comprehensive voter surveys to confirm a widespread loss of popularity,  the latest Gopalpur incident has drawn significant attention, which could dent public trust. Though Majhi’s strong condemnation of the incident and promise of exemplary action may mitigate some backlash, the masses at large are beginning to distrust the Majhi administration to a substantial extent.

The truth is that the public opinion appears divided. Positive initiatives like flimsy women’s empowerment initiatives, attempt at job creation and industrial growth may have bolstered Majhi’s image a little, but bureaucratic hurdles and high-profile incidents like Gopalpur have eroded support among  voter communities.

Majhi may not have elite academic credentials. But those alone do not fully define a leader's capability for governance. To be a real good leader, political experience, administrative understanding, and team-building skills are necessarily crucial. CM Majhi is an innocent public benefactor who is certainly not aware of basics to focus on the core governance issues. He has erred on quite a few :

·         Policy decisions like sudden irrational ‘age limit' changes, and  few other development priorities having been ignored completely have not gone well with the people.

·         Administrative execution has so far been poor.

·         Responsiveness to real public needs of which he is unaware as he does not keen to read public psyche or perceptions at all.

For all this, the conscious people form all walks of life have begun questioning Majhi's  policy impacts, administrative decisions, or vision to take Odisha to the next level of development.

His women empowerment policies are laughable as only a pittance is tossed at the beneficiaries, with which no one can ever run enterprises to make money. The money is plainly wasted. His style of extremely poor administrative execution is talk of the town. Responsiveness to real public needs like quality policing and maintenance of  law and order is deplorable.

Majhi should not have put any deputy chief minister in the first place. The woman deputy is a big disaster, for she has won only because of the support of a BJD rebel. She neither knows governance, nor team work- let alone understand the basic tenets of the Constitution. There are ministers who either talk too much or frantic to extort money from people who deserve help to run shop and develop the state. The law and order situation in the state is in a terrible shape.

Gentleman Majhi will no more be forgiven for holding onto so many portfolios about which he hardly knows anything. Other first timers too have been clinging to multiple departments only to grope in the dark. In consequence, the people are suffering.

Strangely, the noble minded chief minister is failing to perform so well as to keep people happy despite having a gem of an advisor Prakash Mishra who is known for both his unparalleled skills and impeccable track records with  enviable integrity.