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The Rediff Interview/Girdhar Gomango

'I was elected because the Congress is with me, not because I am Gomango'

T he party is more important than the individual, seems to be the oblique message the newly elected chief minister of Orissa would like to send out. "I have been elected to represent the people not because I am Girdhar Gomango but because I am a Congress worker," he says.

Interestingly, Gomango, a tribal leader, was far behind the chief ministerial race before his ascension to the post was given the final go-ahead by Congress president Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi yesterday. There were prominent contenders for the chief minister's post after J B Patnaik's resignation, like Deputy Chief Minister Basanta Biswal, Pradesh Congress Committee chief Hemananda Biswal, former chief minister Nandini Satpathy and the former Union minister K P Singh Deo.

However, the Congress high command preferred Gomango over all of them. A tribal leader from Koraput, he has been elected to the Lok Sabha eight times in a row. He also led the Congress to victory in the 1995 assembly election, when he was PCC chief.

Gomango has take charge at a time when all eyes are on Orissa because of the attacks on the Christian community which cost Patnaik his job.

In his first interview after his election, to Special Correspondent Syed Firdaus Ashraf, Gomango says protecting the Christians will be one of his top priorities as chief minister.

What will be your government's top priority?

I can answer this question only after I take charge. But at present, I can say that my first priority will be pushing the development work in the state.

What about the law and order situation? One of the reasons J B Patnaik had to go was because of his failure to protect the Christian community.

Of course, that is one of my top priorities at present. I am going to make provisions to protect all the minorities and I will go in-depth into all the incidents of violence against Christians which occurred in the state in the last two months.

Are you going to take any special efforts to protect the Christian community?

When I say minorities, it includes all of them. After all, I don't want to segregate the minorities.

But isn't it true that the Christian community is feeling threatened in Orissa?

No, this is untrue.

Have you planned any action against the Bajrang Dal since it seems to be the most vocal in anti-minority outbursts?

I can't comment on that. Let me take over as chief minister and review the situation. And only then will I be able to comment on the Bajrang Dal.

Since elections are just one year away, don't you think replacing Patnaik at this juncture prove to be costly?

What is wrong with it? Everybody knows elections will be held next year. People have voted for the Congress party and have given their verdict in its favour. So be it, Gomango or anyone else, they won't mind it. After all, when the Congress won the assembly election in 1995 I was the PCC chief. So, I don't think the people of Orissa will have any problem in accepting me as the chief minister of Orissa.

But, in 1989, after the Congress fared badly in the parliamentary election, Patnaik was asked to resign and was then replaced by Hemananda Biswal. But the move proved to be a disaster, as the Congress lost badly in the 1990 assembly election. Don't you think you will face the same kind of setback in the coming election?

No, no way will my election as chief minister be a setback to my party. But at the same time, one must understand that politics is all about winning and losing. Democracy is the will of people, and you have to accept it whether you like it or not. In a democracy there are discussions, debates and lot of people's problems. So the politicians must know how to solve the problems by giving a clear-cut direction.

You see, the Congress party is the only party which has been able to give such a direction, and that is the precise reason for the Congress party to have survived for 110 years. If you see the history of Indian politics you will find that no other party in India has been able to survive for so long except the Congress because it always understood the problems of the people. And that is the reason I feel that there will be no setback for the Congress party after I become chief minister as the people of Orissa know me very well.

But there has been resentment in a lot of quarters, like former chief minister Nandini Satpathy, after you were elected. She walked out of the CLP meeting yesterday before your name was decided.

No, I am not aware of any such dissidence against me. And as I said earlier, there are norms of democracy and one has to accept it whether you like it or not.

Will you say that the entire Congress party is behind you?

Yes, the entire party is with me. You see, I have been in the Congress party for the last 27 years and those who elected me did so because of the Congress party and not because I am Gomango. I am and will be a loyal Congress soldier. And I have always enjoyed the support of my late leader Indira Gandhi.

I am talking about the dissidents in Orissa.

Let me clear one thing. We all have won the elections in Orissa because of the fact that we are with the Congress party. In fact, the people have voted all of us in by seeing the policies and the top leaders of the party.

Except the Stains case, all the attacks on the Christian community does not seem to substantiate the evidence that it was pre-planned. What is your comment?

All the attack cases against the Christian community are under investigation and review. These are not small cases, but serious ones. And, I have to solve these cases. There are problems and we will surely solve the problems.

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