The Congress election manifesto released here on Saturday for the forthcoming panchayat polls in the state portrays chief minister Naveen Patnaik as “Dashanan”, the 10-headed demon king.
Dashanan is the other name of Ravan, the king of Lanka and key antagonist in the great Hindu epic Ramayana.
A cartoon on the back cover of the 16-page document shows the chief minister shouldering nine heads. Each head has been used a metaphor to describe a major scam or scandal. Mr Patnaik’s head in the centre with four teeth furiously sticking out has been branded as “Sarbakhiasura” (the demon who eats up everything), for the diversion of river water for industrial use on head has been depicted as “Pani Asura” (water demon).
Similarly, the agriculture scam has been painted as “Chasi Marakasura” (farmer killing demon), mining scam as “Khani Asura”, NREGA scam as “Naregasura”, increase in atrocities against women as “Dhrasanasura”, dal scam as “Dali Asura”, coal scam as “Koilasura”, alleged favouritism to Vedanta as “Vedantasura” and death of displaced tribals in police firing as “Adibasihantasura”.
What is interesting is that the back-page cartoon has Naveen Niwas Lankapur, the abode of Ravan. The second cartoon on the front-inner cover page portrays the “collapsing” state administration.
The cartoon shows how the “percentage-taking” corrupt engineers and “petty BJD touts” have plagued the chariot of state administration by taking away its two wheels.