Investigation Against Dr. Debi Prasanna Pattanayak Essential In State Interest

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Like most people of Orissa I had also believed that linguist Dr. Debi Prasanna Pattanayak and his protégé Subrat Kumar Prusti, with Congress leader Rama Chandra Khuntia have fetched for us the “classical status” of our mother tongue Oriya.

But, as I peruse the official records, I am convinced that both Pattanayak and Prusti have committed gross irregularity and serious impropriety, which may land them in the jail if investigated into by an outside agency like the CBI.

Department of Culture, Government of Orissa prepared a documented compilation to support its claim for classical status of Oriya Language, styled “Report on Classical Status of Odia Language” to be “submitted to Ministry of Culture, Government of India”.

Odia Bhasha Pratisthan was asked for preparation of a documented “Report”, which the State Government should submit before the Central Ministry of Culture. It appointed a team of assumed experts to prepare this documented Report against remunerative wages along with TA and DA for the days when meetings are held.

Dr. Debi Prasanna Pattanayak was made a member thereof. He prevailed upon Dr. Harihar Kanungo, then the Director of the Bhasha Pratisthan, to “co-opt” Subrat Kumar Prusti to the Committee. The attached picture would show that Bhasa Pratisthan was paying them the TA and DA on the days of the meetings of this Committee.

I am not going into details of expenditure the State Government had to bear on this head, except saying at this moment that, the “Report” prepared by the said Committee was finalized in the Committee on 31.5.2013. In approving the “Report”, all the members of the Committee had put their signature at the end of the same. Below are their signatures of approval.

But, surprisingly the same “Report” was surreptitiously grabbed by the duo and submitted to Government of India through RajyaSabha MP, Rama Chandra Khuntia .

Following news in media that on behalf of Orissa Lekhak Samukhy, its President Satakadi Hota had written to the Central Government to grant classical status to Oriya Language, Khuntia had used the floor of the House in this regard several times and had been taking up the matter with the concerned central minister. Pattanayak and Prusti thought of using him as their instrument, whereas he and his colleague in the Congress Party Matlub Ali were also interested in using the classical status campaign to their political advantage.

The Report of the Government of Orissa was prepared with input from as many as 16 scholars of the State; analyzed, evaluated, edited and compiled into the reported form by authorized members of the Committee and finalized, as said supra, under collective wisdom of all the members on 31.5.2013. The “Document” submitted by Khuntia was the hijacked copy this “Report” , claimed to be having the input from Khuntia’s pet organizations numbering 10 including the above mentioned Institute of Pattanayak and Prusti.

It is quite interesting to note that Pattanayak and Prusti have signed on the body of the document prepared by the Bhasha Pratisthan on 31. 5. 2013. The same document has been submitted by Khuntia to government of India on 10. 6. 2013.

This strongly suggests that Pattanayak and Prusti have secretly acquired the copy of the official document and have handed it over to Khuntia for use by him. Khuntia has given them both the credit of its compilation.

It is further noteworthy that, there was conspiracies to suppress the official document in the concerned Ministry of Culture, so that, credit for the classical status could be claimed only by Pattanayak and Prusti.

And, as we see, they have fetched money-fetching assignments from the government of Orissa, by projecting themselves/ their institute as achiever of the classical status for Oriya.

This is a serious syndrome that needs serious investigation.