WILL NAVEEN PATNAIK’S ‘SPORTS DIPLOMACY’ BEAR FRUITS?

New Delhi: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is engaged in politics through sports diplomacy. Lok Sabha elections are going to be held simultaneously in his state next year.

This means the election year has begun and it begins with the men’s hockey World Cup. This time the Hockey World Cup will be held in two cities of Odisha Bhubaneswar and Rourkela.

It will be held from January 13 to 19 at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar and the Birsa Munda Stadium in Rourkela. Before that, Patnaik announced that if the Indian team wins the World Cup, then the state government will give one crore rupees to each player.

Naveen Patnaik’s government had started many big projects regarding this event. New aviation service was also started from Rourkela just before this event, which was flagged off on January 7. It started under the UDAN scheme of the central government but the state government made it its own event.

The picture of Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia was not seen anywhere in the advertisement of this event. Not only this, the name or picture of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was also not printed. BJP leader of Odisha and Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has objected to this.

However, it is also being said that Naveen Patnaik has invited all the opposition leaders for the inauguration of the Hockey World Cup event.

Mind you, Naveen Patnaik has so far stayed away from efforts to unite the opposition against the BJP. He gave a message of equidistance from the BJP and the opposition but largely continued to provide issue-based support to the BJP central government.