Subhas Chandra Pattanayak
When the issue is governance of Orissa in Oriya, I am shocked to see that the Government has started playing mischief by tampering with the minutes of the Joint Action Committee held on August 01, 2015.
After declaring on July 8, 2015 that the Government has accepted the demands of Odiya Bhasa Sangram Samiti to implement the Orissa Official Language Act, 1954, and further declaring simultaneously that a Joint Action Committee with a five-member-team of Ministers representing the Government on one side and a seven-member-team of Odia Bhasa Sangram Samiti on the other side, would meet after Bahuda Yatra of Sri Jagannatha and workout the decision, the government has tried to damage the sanctity of the meeting by –
(a) Not notifying the same in official format after receiving the names of the seven representatives of the Bhasa Sangram Samiti;
(b) Bringing in BJD member of Rajyasabha Sri Baishnab Charan Parida to disturb the first JAC meeting, even though he was not in the list of representatives of Bhasha Sangram Samiti;
(c) Wrongful recording of minutes of the JAC meeting dated August 1, 2015 under Resolution No.4 to include in the JAC Sri Satakadi Hota, when no such Resolution was in fact adopted.
The minutes of the August 1 meeting are severely tampered with to arbitrarily bring in Sri Hota as a member to the JAC, even though, as the officially appointed President of Orissa Sahitya Academy, there is no problem to invite him for participation as an official like all other officials who participated in the meeting held on August 01.
On July 8 it was decided that the Government would take the help of an eminent linguist and one or two eminent authors in matter of modalities of implementation of the Act, on the basis of which eminent linguist Dr.Debi Prasanna Pattanayak was invited to the meeting, has been consulted and authorized to frame the Language Policy.
Sri Hota is an eminent author. In this capacity too, he could have been invited to help the JAC. There was no necessity to tamper with the JAC decisions to include him as a member.
This could be a deliberate mischief to test to what extent government can hoodwink the Bhasa Sangram Samiti and nothing else.
Under no circumstance we can countenance tampering with the minutes of JAC, as and when held.
We have enough of experience of how in Naveen Patnaik’s regime repeated attacks on Oriya language have been perpetrated without any action against the miscreants.
Instances –
First attack in 2005
In 2005, his Government had issued orders to drop Oriya as a subject in College education taking some colleges as laboratories of this evil design. We exposed that; and thrashed, the said order was withdrawn. But our demand to dismiss the education minister who had presided over this evil design was ignored by Naveen and he continued in the cabinet to the embarrassment of the people of Orissa.
Time was taken to revive the attack again.
Second attack in June 2015
A decade after the first attack, another attack was perpetrated by the Naveen raj inasmuch as a Deputy Secretary in the Department of Higher Education asked all the Principals of Government Colleges and all the Universities of Orissa to impart education in English language only with text books printed in only English.
This was the same as quashing Oriya language in Courses of Study, as the order to teach Oriya in English language with texts of Oriya books printed in English strongly suggested.
We analyzed and exposed the evil design in ORISSA MATTERS under the caption: Oriya would be taught in English language! What a mad government!
The government, instead of taking action against the Deputy Secretary, has tried to shift the responsibility to Orissa Assembly.
Movement by Odia Bhasa Sangram Samiti
Against this backdrop, Odia Bhasa Sangram Samiti, the common platform of language activists, has been spearheading a mass movement for implementation of the 1954 Act immediately.
Eminent poet and language activist Sri Gajanan Mishra was on fast till death, with many persons from various walks of life including this reporter conducting relay fasts in demanding governance of Orissa in Oriya.
We have been given to understand that, all of the members of the Council of Ministers have their support for the demands of the Bhasa sangram Samiti and reportedly under orders of the Chief Minister the Joint Action Committee has been formed with five ministers representing the government and seven language activists representing the Samiti.
Third attack in August 2015
The JAC met on August 01 in the Secretariat to work out on assurances given by the Government to the Samiti for Governance of Orissa in Oriya. The third attack is perpetrated by way of tamering with the JAC minutes.
How could bureaucracy dare to tamper with its minutes? Is it done behind the Chariman of the Committee Hon’ble Minister Debi Prasad Mishra?
If, despite all our cooperation, some official functionaries sabotage the Bhasa Sangram Samiti movement for governance of Orissa in Oriya, and create confusing records of the minutes of its meeting with the ministers, I fear, the Chief Minister would be failing in his duty unless the officials that tampered with the minutes of the JAC are taken into task.