OdishaLIVE Bureau
Honourable Chief Minister Shri Naveen Patnaik, dignitaries on the stage, Ladies and Gentlemen We are assembled here for the launch of the book, “The Tall Man, Biju Patnaik”; in commemoration of one of the greatest Indian leaders of our times. We are here to honour Bijayananda Patnaik, the father of Modern Odisha and a pillar of the democratic system of India.
He is affectionately called “Biju Babu” by everyone. Ladies and Gentlemen, I stand here, to speak to you about the great life of Biju Babu, beyond being a politician. All my life, I have been a fascinated student of leadership. I have looked at the idea of leadership across the spectrum. From politics, to business to sports to military, I have studied the physiology, the psychology, the spirituality and the mystique of leadership.
Today, I present Biju Patnaik as a case study for decoding the essence of leadership. But before I do that, I want to frame Biju Patnaik in a context and for that, I would like to speak about someone else, whom most of you may not have ever known.
That man’s name is John Fisher Burns. Burns was the London bureau chief for the New York Times for many years. But he was also posted in hot places like China, Afghanistan, Iraq and Russia during their most turbulent times. He was imprisoned in China for his reporting, set on trial and expelled. For his contributions to international reporting, Burns was called “the greatest war correspondent of our times” and “the dean of American foreign correspondents”. Burns was twice awarded the Pulitzer Prize. Ladies and Gentlemen, by now you are intrigued as to why I am speaking about Burns today.
Indians may not know, When Biju Patnaik left the world in 2007, a man no less than Burns wrote a tribute to him; in a newspaper no less than the New York Times. The number of Indians whose departure was written about in New York Times, the No. 1 newspaper of the world, can be counted on finger tips. The headline of the story did not say, Biju Patnaik, two-time chief minister of Odisha.
It did not say, he served the Union Cabinet. It didn’t say he belonged to this political party or that. New York Times, in a tone of respect and solemnity, simply said, “Biju Patnaik, 81, Daring Pilot-Patriot of India”. The copy read, “Biju Patnaik, one of the most prominent survivors of the generation of Indian leaders who took part in the independence struggle against Britain died on Thursday. He was 81.” Many here wouldn’t know about another interesting fact.
When Biju Patnaik died in 1987, it wasn’t just The New York Times, the globally referenced magazine, The Economist wrote a full-page tribute. The Economist opened its tribute on a very interesting note. It read, “It is worth writing about Biju Patnaik for at least two reasons. His long life can be read as something of a history of India back to the time when the country was run by Britain. And he gave Indian politics a rare flash of colour.” Ladies and Gentlemen, today, on the dedication of the book “The Tall Man Biju Patnaik”, let us look at Biju Patnaik as an exemplar of leadership. For that, let us begin by defining who is a leader.
Amidst the myriad definitions that I have come across in my life, I am most influenced by one from the American Futurologist Joel Barker. He said, a leader is someone others opt to follow to go someplace they would not go by themselves. It implies that the first requirement for a leader is to have the Power of Vision. The leader sees what others do not. But seeing is not everything. Leadership means the ability to take others along, the ability to create a shared vision, to build a vision community so that people cross the chasm to go someplace they would not go by themselves.
The vision of that future often requires a long walk. That walk is always paved with thorns. Ahead of all other abilities then, vision and the walk towards it, entail courage. Leaders must have courage.
From the time that a small boy Biju Patnaik had jumped into the swirling waters of the Kathajodi river in spate to save a drowning boy, to his many heroic landing of aircrafts in foreign lands, to defying the proclamation of national emergency, to his ability to incessantly go against the flow, Biju Patnaik was a supremely courageous leader.
He hid behind nothing, he was unafraid when it came to defend his faith and belief; the temptation of personal fame and glory, things that define most achievers, did not matter to him. To him, convenience wasn’t the outer wrapper of conviction. But Ladies and Gentlemen, it is not enough to be blessed with courage. A true leader must be able to deal with complexity.
Many people can climb a mountain. The issue is how many can climb when the difference between the pinnacle and the precipice is invisible because there is a blizzard? Biju Patnaik could climb, or should I say fly, with near zero visibility, faulty instrument and low fuel. That is the spirit with which he played the parlays for a yet to be born nation and thereafter for decades, whenever the nation needed him. But the ability to deal with complexity is not enough.
A true leader must be able to deal with contradictions. Complexity and contradiction didn’t faze him. That is why he could fly to evacuate stranded British people as war raged in Burma and on the way, he could drop nationalist literature for Indian troops because, above the complexity and the contradiction, he saw the vision of a free people.
If we look at the annals of great leadership, from Gandhi to Martin Luther King to Nelson Mandela, we can see that a critical component of leadership is heightened, yet lasting obsessiveness with an idea; an idea that becomes the leader’s burden of dreams; an idea that consumes the leader, it becomes the only reason to be alive. To Bijayananda Patnaik, the obsessive reason to be alive was the idea of Kalinga, it was an incredible idea for a people for whom the present was an ambitionless vortex.
The people of Odisha were not able to see a worthwhile future; far less, to get there by themselves. But before a people can see that future, first they need to see their own past. For this, Bijayananda Patnaik, went back thousands of years to resurrect the idea of Kalinga, expanded across land, a Kalinga that was expansive across the oceans.
To flabbergasted followers, to the secretly admiring sceptics, he said, Kalinga is the promised land of the brave and free; he wore the insignia of Kalinga on his heart, his sleeves and then on every enterprise he created. If Biju Patnaik didn’t walk this land, the word Kalinga would have been obliterated from social memory. In the dream for Kalinga, Bijayananda was creating not a memory of the past but, memories for the future. The memories for the future that he created for his land had Paradip Port berthing ships when it was barely ready for a schooner. He saw expansive 4-lane highways where mostly bullock carts ambled their way. He saw dams and refineries and modern manufacturing plants. But he also saw art, literature, sculpture and, he saw science.
But at the centre of this kaleidoscopic dream, was the smallest person of his State; he felt their pain like no one else did. He was touched by their struggles for existence. Every time he met them, he touched their heart. He was theirs. They claimed him like they claimed their mountains and forests and their streams. Biju Patnaik, with his larger than life persona, his unbounded charisma, continues to be every politician’s envy. But Biju Patnaik, wasn’t a politician. He never lost sight of his primary responsibility to lead. In so doing, he often did what no politician would dare to. Biju Patnaik rebuke his people that he was disappointed, that they were falling short of his expectations, that they needed to rise above comfortable mediocrity, that they had to seize the moment and cross the Rubicon.
In his most referenced speech, “The Orissa of My Dream”, he had the guts to say, “Odisha has become a small little place”. He had the audacity to say, “We, men and women of today, have shrunk. Because we do not dream big, we have become little men and women with little problems, little conspiracy, little likes and dislikes, little gain or loss”. Biju Patnaik could say that, not because he was a tall man. He could warn us of our shrunken self-image, of smallness of our existence because his power of vision and true love for his people rose above the expediency of populism.
In sharing that vision, in creating a vision community, he said, “In my dream of the 21st century for the State, I would have young men and women who put the interest of the State before them. They will have pride in themselves, confidence in themselves. They will not be at anybody’s mercy, except their own selves. By their brain, intelligence and capacity, they will recapture the history of Kalinga.” Ladies and Gentlemen, an objective study of a leader like him is a difficult task. In our search for the man, retracing his steps on the sands of time, we risk dealing with both adulation and ignorance. In remembering a towering giant, not just a tall man, there is the added difficulty of dealing with the metaphysical element. The aura. The mystique. Where history stops, mythology engulfs us.
In that backdrop, I compliment Shri Sundar Ganesan and the entire team behind him, who have put together Bijayananda Patnaik’s life with the finesse and sensibility of a museum curator. It is a case study in leadership; a book fit for future generations. It is a credible presentation of a tall leader. From the early years, to his aviator days, from contributions to the national freedom movement, to his Statesmanship in a free India, from putting his skin in the game to build a strong, vibrant State to his call for true federalism, this is a book for future generations. It has rare credibility because it uses less words, it relies almost entirely on evocative pictures as artefacts of history and faithfully cites sources. I would call the book heirloom material.
In closing, I want to say that there are two kinds of people. One that are called “path creators” and then there are many, who are called “path followers”. Both are needed. Path creators chart a new course where none exists for the followers to walk them. Path creation is the more difficult task. It is what leadership is all about. Bijayananda Patnaik was an exemplary path creator. A man whose enduring legacy will bind future generations to the unending task of carrying the burden of his dreams. Thank you, Honourable Chief Minister Shri Naveen Patnaik for inviting me to review the book and thank you, Ladies and Gentlemen for being here to witness the launch of The Tall Man Biju Patnai
