Naveen Patnaik’s ‘fitness’ video adds to suspicion over his health

Social media users in Odisha were amused to find a video on their smart phones last Friday. The two-minute, eight second long video showed Chief Minister and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) chief Naveen Patnaik, seemingly fit and clad in grey trousers and a black T-shirt, going through his morning workout regime - jogging, lifting weights, doing lift-ups and sit-ups, pedaling on a stationary bicycle and so on.

Given the fact that Naveen Babu’s health has been the subject of intense speculation and hush-hush discussion for at least two years now, it was only natural that the video was shared furiously and went viral in next to no time. The issue was considered important enough by at least one leading TV channel to merit a slot on its regular, 30-minute debate in the evening.

Soon, it was revealed that the video had been released by the ruling party, though not officially. Naveen himself gave the game away with his one-line comment at the end of the video where he says; “Getting ready to fight for the people of Odisha.” It became clear that this was the BJD’s way of addressing concerns over his health and setting at rest all speculation over it ahead of what is perhaps the most important election in his incredibly successful political career.

But far from doing anything of the sort, the video appears to have had the exact opposite effect. Not only has it raised doubts about the veracity of the video itself; it has also only served to further intensify speculation over Naveen’s health. One of the reasons for doubt, of course, was the fact that his massive paunch, which people see on TV screens on a daily basis, was conspicuous by its absence in the video. There was further cause for skepticism when people saw him on TV screens being helped to climb the stage by two aides on either side of him at an election rally at Raighar in Nabarangpur just the day after the video went viral.

The bulging stomach was back too! At least two veteran leaders – Suresh Routray of the Congress and Damodar Rout of the BJP (both older than Naveen) – have dared the Chief Minister to a sprint to prove his fitness.

In March, 2017, a report published in a little known news portal based out of Chennai, which had said the Odisha Chief Minister was set to undergo a surgery in a US hospital, had brought the issue of his health into the public domain for the first time.

Effective media management, however, had ensured that the highly speculative and unauthenticated report did not get much traction in the local media at the time. Naveen himself had sought to scotch all speculation about his health condition affirming that he was ‘fit and fine’.

But concerns over his health remained, primarily because what people saw on TV screens – and in real life – on a daily basis: Naveen needing help to mount on or alight from a stage, his hands trembling and so on. On one particular occasion, he was even unable to unfurl the national flag and had to leave the job to a police officer standing nearby!

Apprehensions about Naveen’s health had started even before the 2014 elections when people saw his head falling off to one side every few seconds. As his visits to New Delhi became more frequent than they ever were in his long stint as CM, media circles in Bhubaneswar were abuzz with speculation that he was undergoing treatment at Dr. Naresh Trehan’s Medanta Hospital in the national capital. But such reports never found their way to the pages of newspapers or screens of TV news channels.

But what began on the eve of the 2014 elections has come back to haunt the BJD chief on the eve of another election five years down the line. The release of the video shows that Naveen Patnaik is worried over public concerns on his health and the impact it could have on the election results.

If the reaction to the viral video is anything to go by, the cure has turned out to be worse than the disease itself.