Manoj Das keeping mum even after exposure makes the matter murkier

Posted on June 17, 2013 by Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Eminent journalist Prasanta Patnaik has, in his column in Sanchar, exposed such a thread in the matter of economic offenses committed by Prasant Das and his Seashore group of companies that every Oriya who prides in his/her language, writers and scribes, feels ashamed.

Patnaik has exposed how a self-help group of writers and scribes have collectively enhanced credibility of the swindler by accepting big sums of money as their salaries and awards under the banner of a body of letters style Seashore Sahitya Academy that the crook had floated to build up his image of benevolence in the public.

And, he has named the literary acrobats who have contributed to promotion of climate the Seashore group wanted to lure the depositors.

He has named author and orator of international repute Manoj Das, known in Orissa as an ascetic of Pondicherry; and superannuated IAS officer, Rajendra Kishore Panda, known in Orissa as a progressive poet.

He has exposed how the swindler had contrived a method to fetch fame through these men. And, how, under the presidentship of Panda and approval of Das, literary lightweights like college teachers Malabika Roy and Bipin Bihari Nayak and a veterinary doctor Duryodhan Das were teamed up in this dubious body that netted in, in course of time, opinion makers like Journalists Barendrakrushna Dhal, Srimay Kar and Sriram Das to pump in credibility to the censorable outfit by accepting its awards.

When Panda as president of this Academy, allegedly functioned without receiving any money for the service he rendered, Malabika, Bipin and Duryodhan received Rs.60,000 each as monthly salary as its vice-presidents, where as another teacher Narayan Panda also bagged the same amount as Secretary of the said Academy, Patnaik has claimed.

Das accepted a monthly package of a lakh of rupees to act as advisor, he has noted, while questioning his prudence in being associated with such a bubious body against salary of such a stupendous amount.

By active contributing to creation of misleading fame of a crook, who, on the strength of such manufactured fame, has swindled about 500 crores of rupees from the deposits of the lured people, the self-help group of authors and scribes, as named above, has played the nastiest possible mischief against the society, Patnaik has alleged.

Manoj Das and his team in the so-called Academy are making the matter murkier by their surprising silence.

The climate of swindling, cheating, fake fames, and hypocrisy that Naveen Patnaik’s deceptive rule for more than a decade has created, has, it seems, made our men of letters and societal conscience keeper such scraps that they have no courage to stand erect against luring currents.

Filed under: administration, Animadversion, art & culture, Editorials, news, orissa, oriya, politics, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , | Leave a Comment »

Medicos keep media persons in wrongful confinement at Cuttack: Action called for

Posted on June 15, 2013 by Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

When his father was an indoor patient in SCB Medical College Hospital, reporter Chittaranjan of Naxatra News, while attending him, came across such irregularities in the hospital management and health care that as a media person it was to him imprudent to ignore. He was in a predicament. He knew that it would be irritating to the College authorities as well as to the hospital’s medical staff if the irregularities were exposed and may lead to debacle of his ailing father. Yet he also knew that if he sloughs over the irregularities, his professional conscience would never excuse him. He battled against himself and finally decided to honor his professional conscience. He captured some evidences of irregularities in camera on 14 06 1013. This irked the medicos.

Today, at around 5.30 PM of June 15, when Chitta and a co-reporter had been to the medical college and hospital to attend to his bedridden ailing father, a irritated gang of medicos numbering about 30, attacked them suddenly and forcefully took them into confinement.

The wrongful confinement lasted for about two hours.

The reporters were threatened with dire consequences if the tapes on which visuals were shot yesterday were not handed over to them immediately. But the tape was not with the reporters as by that time they had already submitted the same in the bureau office. Their tormentors asked them to kneel down holding the ears by both the hands till they were released at about 7.30 in the evening.

On behalf of ‘Naxatra News’ channel, its editor-in-chief Basudev Mohapatra has condemned the hooliganism resorted to by the medicos and has appealed to media fraternity to unite against such attack so as to protect free press in the State.

Media Unity for Freedom of Press (MUFP) Presidium member Prasanta Patnaik is in consultation with other members over the issue.

Filed under: Health, law and order, media, Media Unity, news, orissa, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , | 2 Comments »

Land Ceiling was Nandini’s landmark contribution: Brinda Karat

Posted on June 11, 2013 by Ajaya K Mohapatra

nandini's birthday

One of the most popular Information Ministers India has ever had and former Chief MInister of Orissa late Nandini Satpathy was paid glowing tributes for her progressive contributions when her 82 birthday was observed with deliberations on “Social divisions in the society and the ways to overcome it” in the State Information Center (Jaya Dev Bhawan) on June 10.

CPI(M) Politburo member Brinda Karat and Congress spokesperson Renuka Chowdhury were the guests. Satpathy’s son and carrier of her legacy Tathagat, who, besides being a member of Indian Parliament in the Loksabha, is the editor of Dharitri of which she was the founder, presided.

Brinda focused on why, despite death, Nandini is alive.

She was in lifelong link with the people in the grassroots and had used her power to usher in progressive reforms with specific purpose to help the downtrodden proceed towards prosperity, which has kept her alive, she said.

She had joined politics, as a conscious revolutionary initiated into marxism, epitomizing the ideals of her famous elder father Bhagavati Panigrahi, and despite her metamorphosis into power politics under the canopy of the Congress party, she had not drifted away from her original revolutionary ideals while holding positions in the Central Council of Ministers and accepting Chief-ministerial responsibilities in Orissa,said Brinda.

It is she who had generated dreams for employment through industry in Orissa by establishing such employment generating undertaking in the public sector and in order to self employment in agriculture, she had not only used her chief-ministerial powers to formulate and promulgate a first of its kind Land Reforms Act, but also had made the most landmark contribution to progressive economy by promulgating land ceiling in Orissa, that was yet again a pioneering step towards liberating the most essential raw material of a agricultural society – the land – from concentration in the hands of a few people who do not cultivate.

A multi-dimensional personality, she was a colorful politician that epitomized elite manners but remained glued to expectation of the poor in right earnest which was reflected in her administration, addressed to pro-poor programs and in her literary works spangled with dreams and aspirations of the disadvantaged, she said.

With the petals of her observation on Nandini, Brinda dwelled on the topic of how to overcome social division. The traditional divisive factors like castes and communal identities apart, economic inequality has emerged as the divide that needs be effectively removed if social division is to be tackled, she said. Concentration of wealth in marginal few to the impoverishment of the majority is the problem that the conscious citizens everywhere are battling against. She was sure, mass resentment against social divide will succeed, because the people are increasingly getting more informed and meretricious assurances of pro-rich power-holders are reaching the last stage of reliability. Determined mass involvement in movements against the existing divide will expedite its end, she said.

Audience responded to Brinda’s observation with standing ovation.

Echoing Brinda, national Congress spokesperson Ms. Chowdhury, as the chief speaker, observed that change is inevitable, as Indian society, despite continuity of social divide, has changed from a stage of ‘Sati’ to women making their marks of success in public domains. That the governments, over the times, have framed various progressive laws such as Right to Education Act, is evidence of the change the society is marching towards. She stressed on mass awakening against factors of social division, as “the onus is on us to bring the changes”, she said.

Sri Satpathy told that the main aim behind having the debate on this revolutionary subject on the birthday of the late leader was to bring in new ideas, new thoughts, new people and a new visions into our thinking process that can refine the dreams and aspirations of intellectuals of Orissa, with the experience of others who have remarkable practical involvement in overcoming the hurdles social divide creates on the way to development and thanked both the speakers for the rich input they gave to the topic.

Ms. Adyasha Satpathy presented both the guests with their respective portraits drawn by eminent artist Manas Jena to resounding applaud from the audience.

Indian postal department has issued a special post card in Nandini’s honor. Both the guests formally made the card public.
post card in honor of nandini

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Orissamatters’ New Page: LAW BEYOND PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE

Posted on June 9, 2013 by Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

law beyond public knowledge_intro

PRIVATE COUNSEL OF INFORMANT HAS NO RIGHT OF AUDIENCE IN HEARING OF BAIL PETITION OF THE ACCUSED, ARGUES BIBHU PRASAD TRIPATHY

bptA master of Law from the National Law School of India University, Bangalore, Bibhu Prasad Tripathy, Managing Partner of Lex Publicio, has splendid contributions to his profession.

He practices in constitutional forums of justice such as the High Court of Orissa, High Court of Delhi, and the Supreme Court of India.

He also practices in the National Green Tribunal, and National Consumer Forum.

Amidst engagements in such great ramparts of justice, he also creates time sometimes to assist the justice delivery system in solving intricacies of law.

His argument in matter of a Bail Application in the Court of the District and Sessions Judge, Cuttack fits perfectly into this page.

The Samaja, a powerful newspaper of Orissa, allegedly occupied by Servants of the People Society through fraudulent means, has become a battleground for rival fractions and the fraction that has captured the office of the Samaja is misusing its media power to browbeat the rivals through gained over police black sheep. Thus a life member of SoPS Sri Brajaraj Das @ Brajabhai and the President of the newspaper’s employees association Sri Devi Prasanna Nayak were booked by the police on cooked up charges leveled through a FIR which eventually landed the court as a G.R.Case. Bails denied in the primary Court, Das and Nayak had to prefer an application for bail in the District Court through Advocate Bibhu Prasad Tripathy.

It was shocking to see that the media house Samaja was trying to browbeat the Court by engaging a top criminal lawyer to oppose the bail application, when the Court was only to be addressed by the public prosecutor on behalf of the State. Tripathy vehemently objected to that. He argued that the private counsel for the informant has no right of audience in the Court hearing the bail application. The Court agreed.

We post here his argument in public interest.

IN THE COURT OF DISTRICT & SESSIONS JUDGE, CUTTACK
(Bail Application)
B.A. NO…………………OF 2013

(Arising out of GR Case No 465 of 2013 arising out of Cantonment PS Case No 20 of 2013 u/s 341/323/294/354/506/447 and 34 of IPC)

IN THE MATTER OF:

Braja Bhai & Another
……Petitioners
-Versus-
State of Orissa
………Opposite Party

NOTE OF SUBMISSION FILED ON BEHALF OF THE ACCUSED PERSONS OBJECTING TO INFORMANTS PRIVATE COUNSEL’S INDEDPENDENT RIGHT OF AUDIENCE

That the sought questions for consideration during the time of hearing of the bail application of the accused persons was whether the informant private counsel has an independent right of audience or in other wards whether a third party/informant can present oral argument against the petition for bail filed by the accused persons?

That, Section 301 of CrPC states the following:

301. Appearance by Public Prosecutors:
(1) The Public Prosecutor or Assistant Public Prosecutor in charge of a case may appear and plead without any written authority before any Court in which that case is under inquiry, trial or appeal.
(2) If in any such case, any private person instructs a pleader to prosecute any person in any Court, the Public Prosecutor or Assistant Public Prosecutor in charge of the case shall conduct the prosecution, and the pleader so instructed shall act therein under the directions of the Public Prosecutor or Assistant Public Prosecutor, and may, with the permission of the Court, submit written arguments after the evidence is closed in the case.

That, the Hon’ble Delhi High Court in Smt. Indubala & Ors Vs Delhi Administration & Ors (1991 CrLJ 1774) in Paragraph 6 in the operative portion of the order has stated the following:

“So, it is evident that a complainant can only assist the Public Prosecutor when the proceedings are being conducted at the stage of inquiry, trial or appeal. Such a complainant can submit written arguments after the evidence is closed in the case but as far as application for grant of bail is concerned there is no provision made in the Code of Criminal Procedure that a complainant or a third party can intervene and make any submissions independently in opposing the application for grant of bail or anticipatory bail. A single Bench of Punjab and Haryana High Court in Kuldip Singh v. State of Haryana, 1980 Cri LJ 1159, also considered the provisions of S. 301 of the Code of Criminal Procedure in the same manner. Counsel for the petitioner has also made reference to Sarwan Kumar v. State of Haryana, 1989 (2) Recent Criminal Reports 459, wherein a single Judge of that Court also held that the first informant or the complainant in proceedings seeking grant of anticipatory bail neither can be considered as necessary party nor a proper party and has no locus standi to be heard. It was held that the complainant party may hold a watching brief and may bring the relevant facts to the notice of the State counsel and apart from that the complainant party has no right to be heard when particularly the State is duly represented.”

That, a Three Judges Bench of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in Shivkumar Vs Hukum Chand & Another (1999 (7) SCC 467) has categorically stated that from the scheme of the Code the legislative intention is manifestly clear that prosecution in a sessions court cannot be conducted by anyone other than the Public Prosecutor. The legislature reminds the State that the policy must strictly conform to fairness in the trial of an accused in a sessions court. A Public Prosecutor is not expected to show a thirst to reach the case in the conviction of the accused somehow or the other irrespective of the true facts involved in the case. The expected attitude of the Public Prosecutor while conducting prosecution must be couched in fairness not only to the court and to the investigating agencies but to the accused as well. If an accused is entitled to any legitimate benefit during trial the Public Prosecutor should not scuttle/conceal it. On the contrary, it is the duty of the Public Prosecutor to winch it to the fore and make it available to the accused. Even if the defence counsel overlooked it, Public Prosecutor has the added responsibility to bring it to the notice of the court if it comes to his knowledge. A private counsel, if allowed free hand to conduct prosecution would focus on bringing the case to conviction even if it is not a fit case to be so convicted. That is the reason why Parliament applied a bridle on him and subjected his role strictly to the instructions given by the Public Prosecutor.

That in Thakur Ram Vs State of Bihar (AIR 1966 SC 911) the Hon’ble Supreme Court ruled that “in a case which has proceeded on a police report, a private party has no locus standi. It further ruled that, barring a few exceptions, in criminal matters, the aggrieved party is the State, which is the custodian of the social interests of the community at large, and so it is necessary for the State to take all steps necessary for bringing the person who has acted against the social interests of the community, to book.”

That, the Hon’ble Chhatishgarh High Court in Dr Sunil Puri Vs State of Chhatishgarh (2006 CrLJ 866) has observed in Paragraph 15 that “In the result, I hold that the counsel for the complainant or the first Informant has no right of audience in a petition filed Under Section 438, Cr. P.C. for grant of anticipatory bail. He cannot be permitted to orally address the Court. It is only the State Counsel who can be heard in opposing the bail application. However, the counsel so engaged by the first informant or the complainant can brief the State Counsel and can also make a representation on behalf of the complainant or the first informant, and can assist the State Counsel while opposing the ball application. The objection raised by the counsel for the applicant is upheld. However, in the present facts and circumstances of this particular case, it is observed that if so desired, counsel for the first informant, may file written argument at the time of hearing concluded by the counsel for the State.”

That, the Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court also held in the matter of In Re, Rakhal Ojha alias Rakhal Chandra Ojha (1988 Cri LJ 278) that “a plain reading of Sub-sections (1) & (2) of Section 301 Cr. P.C. makes it clear that if in a case which is in charge of a Public Prosecutor or Asstt. Public Prosecutor, a private person engages a lawyer, then, notwithstanding such engagement, the Public Prosecutor or Asstt. Public Prosecutor, who is in charge of the case, shall conduct the prosecution and the lawyer engaged by the private person shall act therein under the direction of the Public Prosecutor or Asst. Public Prosecutor and he can only submit written arguments and that too with the permission of the Court. It was held vide para 8 that the lawyer so engaged by a private person has no right of audience in a case which is in charge of a Public Prosecutor. This analogy derived by the Calcutta High Court appears to be based upon the language of Section 301(2) Cr. P.C. It is held that when the section Itself says that the lawyers engaged may with the permission of the Court, submit written arguments after the evidence is closed, is clear and unambiguous and there is no scope for going behind the letters of the law to hold that such a lawyer can address the Court orally also.”

That, the Hon’ble Delhi High Court in the case of Praveen Malhotra Vs State (1990 CrLJ 2184) while adjudicating a dispute relating to the third party right to intervene and the heard in opposition of bail application clearly stated that “Under Sub-section (2) of Section 301, the pleader instructed by any private person has to act under the directions of the Public Prosecutor or the Assistant Public Prosecutor. Thus it is clear that pleader of a private party can only assist the Public Prosecutor when proceedings are at the stage of inquiry, trial or appeal. After close of evidence such pleader with permission of court, can submit written arguments. The scheme of the Code is that when a case is at the stage, of enquiry, trial or appeal, the Public Prosecutor is in charge of the case. He represents the prosecuting agency before the court. Even in cases where a pleader has been instructed by a private person, such pleader has to act under the directions of the Public Prosecutor and such a pleader is included in the definition of “Public Prosecutor” as provided in Section 2(u). Thus it is evident that no pleader can be permitted to intervene or act except in the manner provided under Section 301(2) of the Code. The combine effect of Section 2(u), 24 and 301 of the Code is that a pleader engaged by a private party cannot plead though he can act and that too under the directions of the Public Prosecutor.” That in Paragraph 19 held that “it may also be noticed that the applicants have not alleged in the application that the State is not doing its duty properly in any manner. The applicants have also not sought leave to assist the State. The contention of the applicants was also not .that the Public Prosecutor has abdicated his functions. The main thrust of the argument of learned counsel for the applicant has been that the applicants have a right to intervene and make oral arguments in the bail application filed by the petitioner. For the reasons aforesaid my answer to the question is that the applicants have no right to intervene and be heard in opposition to the bail application (Cr. M. (M) 161/90).”

That, it follows in the above said Judgements that a plain reading of Section 301 of CrPC reveals that oral submissions by the informant counsel before the Court cannot be independent of the prosecutor and prosecution should not mean persecution. That it is for the said intended objective the Courts have taken an unanimously view that there is no provision in Criminal Procedure Code allowing a complainant or third party to oppose the application for grant of bail or anticipatory bail to the accused persons. Hence the private counsel for the informant does not have an independent right of audience.
By the petitioners
Through
Bibhu Prasad Tripathy
Advocate

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IAS is not Infuser of Anarchy into Service; Chancellor of UCC should review Asok Tripathy’s activities as its VC-in-charge

Posted on June 8, 2013 by Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

It is wrong to read IAS as Infuser of Anarchy into Service. But Mr. Asok Kumar Tripathy IAS has made many read it thus, specifically in the context of what he has done in the Utkal University of Culture (UCC).

He is the Secretary of culture department of the Government of Orissa. And culture department is the administrative department of UCC.

As the Secretary of the administrative department, he knew that the Vice-Chancellor of the University was to retire on February 16, 2013. But he did not take necessary steps to ensure that a new VC was selected and appointed to take over the charges from the outgoing VC. This was probably because, he had a secret agenda to execute after the VC retires. The University Registrar, who could have stressed upon the necessity of selection and appointment of a new VC, was given the impression that the 9th VC was under active consideration for extension and in the process the Culture Minister was also used. But the file generated to emit this impression was to get gone through the stymie in the form of another IAS officer in the system of the Governor-cum-Chancellor, which it failed to pass. resultantly, the 9th VC had to relinquish office to create the vacancy for Tripathy to step in.

Blatant disregard to ethics and prudence

In this method, after the 9th VC retired, Tripathy grabbed the position of VC the next day, i.e. on February 17, 2013, though administratively it was entirely improper and imprudent.

It needs be said that the Secretary, under the Rules of Business, being the chief executive of the department assigned to him, should never want or accept any post in an institute under the administrative control of his department, because thereby any illegality or impropriety committed by him in the said institute shall have no possibility of higher executive intervention in the department howsoever calling be that in the concerned moment and the wrongs perpetrated shall continue to get the support of the State.

As the Secretary of the department and so its executive head, Tripathy should not, therefore, have wanted or allowed himself to accept the assignment as VC of the University.

But in blatant disregard to ethics and prudence, he occupied the VC chair. And went ahead to execute a design that has ruined the academic environment of the University.

What has he done?

Colorable exercise of administrative power

He has dismissed from service all the “qualified” teachers, who were serving the University since six years in all of the 15 post-graduate departments of UCC and besides teaching, were doing all the extra-classroom duties, such as preparing the courses of study, setting question papers, conducting examinations, evaluating answer papers, manning the examination squads and finalizing the results. Because of them the University has earned credibility by launching six batches of Masters in Music. Tripathy has dismissed them all under colorable exercise of administrative power.

According to University Notification No. 1533 of July 26, 2007, all these post-graduate teachers were selected for the vacancies then existing in the University through a competent “Selection Committee” appointed for the purpose, as they were found “qualified” to fill up the vacant faculty positions.

But instead of appointing them as regular teachers they were declared “Guest Lecturers for teaching and accompaniment in different branches of M.Music” with remunerations fixed per class. They all were assured on every relevant occasions that once the financial instability inherently affecting the University was over, their services shall be regularized and they continued to hold the posts created in 2007. The 9th VC had stressed upon their regularization; because they were “qualified” persons “selected” on the basis of “interview” conducted by a duly appointed and legally competent “Selection Committee” of the University in 2007, and had taken positive steps in this regard.

Tripathy has destroyed this position by “disengaging” all of them through mischief of a built up plea.

BoM a tamed team

The University has no senate, no syndicate. It is a government institute controlled by the Secretary of the Culture department. To give it an attire of autonomy, the Secretary has a tamed team branded as the Board of Management (BoM) that comprises Sarat Pujari of Sangit Natak Academy, Satakadi Hota of Orissa Sahitya Academy, Siba Panigrahi of Lalit Kala Academy, Tamasarani Das Mohapatra of Utkal Sangeet Mahavidyalaya, Baladev Prasad Maharatha of B.K. College of Fine Arts, Prasant Das of Khallikot Govt. College of Arts, Ramahari Das of Odissi Research Centre who are indebted to the Secretary for their respective postings. None of these fellows has the courage to say no to what the departmental Secretary wants. In fact, some of them, who, in personal level are my friends, have confided in me that they had to sign on dotted lines the resolution dated 08,04,2013 where it was written that the “guest” lecturers would be disengaged from 10.5.2013. And citing this resolution Tripathy promulgated the “disengagement” order on 15.5.2013.

Office order cannot nullify Notification

It is to be noted that the lectures had entered into the University system by a “Notification” bearing No.1533, which was issued on 26.7.2007 with the unambiguous declaration that all of them were “qualified” for the posts they were to fill up, notwithstanding the designation offered to them.

But all of them have been “disengaged” by an “Office Order” issued on 15.5.2013.

The lecturers, notwithstanding their designation, having entered into the University system by a “Notification” cannot be dismissed by an “Office Order”; because “Office Order” is not the same as “Notification”.

Disengagement is not legal

On the other hand, the so-called “Office Order” which has “disengaged them with effect from 15.05.2013 for the first time after their entry into the University’s faculty system, makes it absolutely clear that till “disengaged”, all of them were “engaged” in their respective jobs which they had joined under the “Notification” of 26.7.2013, notwithstanding the wrongful designation and remuneration they were subjected to.

By virtue of their engagement for six years, as admitted in the above-noted “Office Order”, they had acquired a job status that cannot be dismantled so arbitrarily by a scheming Secretary behind them and in total denial of natural justice to them, and for no fault of theirs, specifically when the same Secretary had the knowledge that after only a few days he would be shunted out of the University when the new VC was to take over.

Keeping these “qualified” lecturers recruited by the “Selection Committee” lawfully constituted by the University for selection of “qualified” persons on the basis of interview against existing vacancies “engaged in their jobs” for six years under a mischievous nomenclature like “guest Lecturers” was blatantly illegal and can be cited as a classic instance of unfair labor practice resorted to by a government institute of higher education in culture like the UCC.

Nasty administration

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik should feel ashamed of what a nasty and exploitive administration he has given to the State where brilliant and “qualified” experts in performing arts have been kept underfed and insecure like bonded labors in the University of Culture by his Mandarines like Tripathy for all these six years to be thrown into the dustbin in furtherance of a design.

The new Governor of the State, who, by virtue of being the Governor, is the University’s Chancellor, should also feel ashamed of his predecessor’s total failure in the realm of UCC where all the teachers, who were found “qualified” by the “selection Committee” and who, on joining the University system, have kept the University alive by producing six batches of Masters in Music, were denied job-security ever since their entry into the University system and had been kept underfed like bonded labors for six years. He should genuinely disapprove that after he has taken over, the same teachers have been “disengaged” for no fault of theirs, but because the Secretary of the controlling department had a secret design to execute.

Culture is so Uncultured!

The “disengagement” of the founding teachers in performing art disciplines like Vocal music, Dance, Instrumental music, and Drama, besides being entirely illegal, is a dastardly uncultured crime against human rights that an institute like the University of Culture was never expected to commit. This is sheer anarchy.

This anarchy has been infused into the system of the University by Tripathy.

The plea that the founding teachers of the University were mere “guest lecturers” whom the board of management resolved to disengage is blatantly fallacious.

The legal aspect has been discussed supra.

Now let us go to the concerned resolution.

Illogical resolution

While proposing to disengage the Guest Lecturers from 10.05.13, it simultaneously says, “There will ….. be …… only Guest Lecturers. All the posts of required number of Guest Lecturers will be advertised for recruitment before the summer vacation of 2013 after getting approval of the administrative department”.

Six years ago, in 2007, there was “advertisement” for “Guest Lectures” and “recruitment” of “qualified” persons for the said posts, was made by a “Selection Committee”, “after getting approval of the administrative department”.

So why have they been “disengaged” after rendering six years of brilliant and bright service; and when none of them was found deficient?

Why the resolution has been adopted to “disengage” “guest lecturers” to recruit “guest lecturers”? Is it a sane resolution?

How do you explain this, members of the BoM?

Mr. Sarat Pujari, how do you explain this?

Mr. Satakadi Hota, how do you explain this?

Mr. Siba Panigrahi, how do you explain this?

Ms. Tamasarani Das Mohapatra, how do you explain this?

Mr. Baladev Prasad Maharatha, how do you explain this?

Mr. Prasant Das, how do you explain this?

Mr. Ramahari Das, how do you explain this?

Each one of you is considered a polar star on the sky of our culture. But instead of nurturing our cultural climate by standing with the teachers of performing arts whom the University had kept underfed by not regularizing their services despite using them to churn out masters these long six years, why have you, like obedient slaves, signed on a resolution that declares to disengage working “guest lecturers” to engage “guest lecturers” in work in their places? Why could you not stand with your conscience? Why this treachery is played against a brilliant and dedicated segment of our performing artists that have made their remarkably bright contributions to the University of Culture?

Timid fellows always try to ingratiate themselves with power holder by honoring their orders howsoever wrong and whimsical that be.

But each one of you above named members of the BoM of the University, is viewed as a luminary. Timidity to the extent of making a farce of a resolution of the type discussed above was the last thing one should have expected from you.

Baffling design

Those, who put premium on the dignity of our artists, must feel most disappointed over the treatment given to the teachers of UCC by a bureaucrat, who, instead of waiting for a couple of days for the regular VC to join and take a decision in the matter, has executed a mischievous resolution coined through a tamed team of members in the University BoM, that wants to replace “Guest Lecturers” with “Guest Lecturers”.

This baffling design cannot be defined in real terms. But, unless there is a secret purpose to recruit favored persons, why vacancies have been created in such a mischievous manner?

The teachers, who have thus been arbitrarily “disengaged” in a nefarious design of Tripathy to create vacancies for yet undisclosed favorites, have submitted a representation against their dismissal to the Governor-cum-Chancellor of the University.

But the Chancellor being the Governor of the State, the said representation is to pass through the barricade manned by the IAS biradari. Lest the biradari suppresses this appeal, we are inclined to publish the same in its entirety in our State’s cultural interest, with a request to our readers to attract in their own ways the attention of the Governor to the plight of the teachers of the University of Culture, of which he is the Chancellor. Here below is the copy of their representation:

To:
His Excellency the Governor of Orissa-cum-Chancellor, Utkal University of Culture,
Raj Bhawan,
Bhubaneswar

Sub: Prayer for quashing of Office Order No.841/UUC dated 15.5.2013 and for regularization in
Faculty positions held since 2007

Bhubaneswar, Dt.27.5.2013

Your Excellency,
We the following signatories are a few of the victims of the Office Order referred to above, putting the prayer of all the victims of the above order, as the rest of us have gone to their respective villages under unavoidable circumstances, authorizing us to represent them in this prayer petition.

Please be pleased to kindly take this petition as the petition of all the victims of the Office order referred to above.

The Utkal University of Culture had a requirement of faculties in PERFORMING ART in the departments of (1) Vocal Music in the areas of (a) Odissi Vocal (b) Hindustani Vocal; (2) Dance in the areas of (a) Odissi Dance (b) Chhow dance; (3) Instrumental Music in the areas of (a) Tabla (b) Odissi Pakhawaj ( c ) Flute (d) Violin; and (4) Drama in the areas of (a) Acting (b) Direction ( c ) Stage Craft. The University also required faculties of VISUAL ART in the departments of (1) Painting (2) Applied Art and Design.

It invited applications for the same posts through advertisements in mainstream papers, which is enclosed herewith as Annexure ‘A’.
When the ESSENTIAL QUALIFICATION underlined for faculty of Performing Art was:“M.Mus. or equivalent with 55% marks in concerned subject from a recognized University within the age group of 60 (sixty) years as on 01.03.2007. The preference will be given to the candidates having NIT/Ph.D./Good Academic career”, the same for faculty of Visual Art was: “M.F.A/M.V.A./Advance Diploma/Post diploma in Painting or equivalent with 55% marks from a recognized University within the age group of 60 years as on 01.03.2007.” with the same preference rider.
The University conducted tests and interviews and selected us for the permanent vacancies in the design of guest faculties; while the appointment notification had made it clear that all of us were “qualified” for “teaching and accompaniment” in the Appointment Notification No.1533/UUC dated 26.7.2007.

The said Notification noted that we were “professional / traditional and qualified persons” selected “for teaching and accompaniment in different branches of M.Music as mentioned against each under Utkal University of Culture as per the decision of the Selection Committee constituted by the University for the Academic session 2007-2008”.
This makes it clear that the University had appointed a “Selection Committee” to select “qualified” candidates for faculty positions against vacancies created in 2007-2008.

And, thereafter, no more authentic vacancies have ever been created, as all of us have been performing our duties regularly by having joined the vacant posts of 2007 under “decision” of the “Selection Committee” in 2007.

The University is a State creation and is supposed to be an ideal employer. But instead of regularizing us in our respective posts, as we were appointed by virtue of being “qualified’ for the post and selected by the “Selection Committee” created to fill up the vacancies created in 2007, it has kept us as guest faculties with improper and absolutely inadequate wages, despite our personal/collective representations to the Authorities umpteen times.

We have been working in the posts appointed to since 2007 and at no point of time any of us has been declared disqualified for the post he/she holds, though at two different occasions we were asked to update the University on our bio-data, which we have always complied with to the satisfaction of the authorities.

We have worked as full-fledged teachers rendering our services in every aspect of teachers’ functioning such as in the matters of syllabus, question paper setting, invigilation in examination, evaluation of answer papers and practical tests over and above taking up of all the classes and implementation of didactics. It may please be noted that there are only seven regular teachers appointed recently as against 15 departments of teaching in the University. It suffices to make Your Excellency appreciate that after filling up the vacant posts in 2007, we are the persons that have done the real teaching in the university in almost its entirety. The University should have regularized us since the beginning, which it has not done.

We were selected through a proper and legally constituted “Selection Committee” that had found us most suitable for the vacancies of 2007-2008 pool on the basis of our fulfilling the “Essential qualification” criteria laid down by the University in 2007 and ever since our joining the vacant posts, we have been doing our job with perfect precision, without which the University could not have run so far with 7 teachers only very recently regularized against 15 departments. The University authorities have always assured us of regularization once its economy is stable. And, as teachers and artists, simple in nature and believers in benevolence of the authorities as well as of the State, we have always stayed satisfied with the assurances.

But, sadly, Your Excellency, when we deserve to be regularized, like a bolt from the blue, the wrongful order under reference (Annexure ‘B’) has hit us on the head. Our representations to the members of the Board of Directors including the Vice-Chancellor and the Registrar dated 18.5.2013 under Annexure ‘C’ and to the Vice-Chancellor on 24.5.2013 under Annexure ‘D’ and to the Registrar on the same day under Annexure ‘E’ have not fetched us any relief.

PRAYER

Under the circumstances, we pray Your Excellency to please intervene and to please protect our right to life by quashing the order under reference and by reinstating us and regularizing our employment as faculties on the following grounds:

* We have not done any negligence to our duties;
* We had duly appeared in the interview conducted by the Selection Committee legally constituted by the University to select candidates possessing the “essential qualifications” prescribed by the University to fill up vacancies caused in 2007;
* We were found “qualified” for the posts by the “Selection Committee”, the “decision” of which had materialized in our appointment;
* Ever since our joining, we have been doing our duties every day of academic functioning of the University, in every area of teaching and didactics;
* Ever since our joining, the posts we hold have never been declared vacant; and there has never been constituted another “Selection Committee” for vacancies, if any, which establishes that with our joining , the vacancies caused in 2007 have been completely filled up and we have been in regular jobs in regular posts though wrongfully treated as guest faculties;
* Ever since our joining, we have never been set disqualified;
Ever since our joining, we have never been found ineligible to work as faculty;
* Ever since our joining, we have regularly worked as faculties and our and only our role as faculties of the University has produced post-graduates in all the subjects the University has offered in performing arts and visual arts.
* When the University has 15 departments, with a mere seven members in regular posts appointed very recently, without us teaching regularly, the University could never have continued as a seat of learning; and this makes it clear that we have been working in posts of permanent nature since 2007 and keeping us branded as guest faculties with inadequate and improper wages to address classes of regular nature for so long a period was / is not in no consonance with employment ethics expected of an ideal employer;
* When the University is a State undertaking, it should act as an ideal employer and therefore, instead of jettisoning us for no fault of ours, the University should regularize us in our employment.
Unless Your Excellency intervenes and regularize us by quashing the order under reference, our right to life would be in serious jeopardy;

And, therefore, we pray Your Excellency to please quash the order under reference and to be pleased to pass necessary orders to reinstate us and regularize our employment.

AND FOR THIS ACT OF KINDNESS, AS IN DUTY BOUND, MOST FERVENTLY WE PRAY.

By the victims of Office Order No. 841/UUC dt.15.5.2013

Infusion of anarchy needs be stopped

It would be proper for the Chancellor to appreciate that the “disengaged” lecturers were legally “selected” to discharge regular jobs that the regular teachers should do, and had thereby de facto filled up the vacancies created in 2007, and therefore, their regularization was a de jure necessity.

Anything else than their regularization would be considered an anarchy in administration.

No IAS officer should be allowed to infuse anarchy into service. So, the Chancellor should act the Governor in this matter and review Tripathy’s activities as VC in-charge of the UCC and save the teachers by quashing the “Office Order” that has thrown a brilliant section of our creative community into a pernicious labyrinth of uncertainty and unemployment.

Filed under: administration, Animadversion, art & culture, Editorials, education, Employees' Issues, law and order, news, orissa, politics, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Save the Samaja campaign holds a whole city cycle rally in Cuttack against false prosecution of employees and inaction against swindlers of Samaja funds

Posted on June 8, 2013 by Ajaya K Mohapatra

campaign commences at College Sqr

Save The Samaja Forum (SSF), spearheading a principled campaign against the fraud and felonies of Servants of the People Society, which, having illegally captured the premiere newspaper of the State is ruining it, held a significant cycle rally with black flags and black badges that covered whole of the city of Cuttack on June 07, 2013 in the afternoon, highlighting the necessity of mass action for saving the Samaja from the network of corruption, misappropriation, malpractice and exploitation of labor.

set to start

Led by joint conveners of the Forum Sri Prasanta Patnaik and Sri Subhas Chandra Pattanayak and the President of Utkalmani Newspaper Employees Association (UNEA) Sri Devi Prasanna Nayak, the rally commenced from the Netaji statue in the College sqr of Cuttack, the birthplace of Netaji Subhas and covered the entire city by touching all its central nerve centers. When the rally reached the Samaja office area, it was witnessed by the unholy occupiers of the paper and photographed by them. There was massive distribution of speaking leaflets elaborating the purpose of the rally, which the agents of the Samaja hijackers were seen collecting. But ethics of journalism has become such an anathema to conduct of the paper now, that it has preferred to blackout the rally.

The cycle rally under black flag was the first of its kind the City has ever witnessed.

It was a very effective attempt to make people aware of how the paper they have built up has been hurled into the hell by its illegal occupiers.

campaign vehicle

The rally was fortified with appropriate slogans ranting the air, even as a pre-recorded audio CD was transmitting the message of SSF from the accompanying Sankalpa Rath, the vehicle, equipped to carry the messages to every nook and corner of Orissa to involve the people with the pledge (Sankalpa) to save the Samaja, which is their own paper built up with their financial contributions and readership support.

The Whole City Cycle Rally starting at 4 pm from the College sqr, ended at Dolamundai sqr after involving the general public with the campaign at important nerve centres of the city.

Joint conveners of SSF, Prasanta Patnaik and Subhas Chandra Pattanayak addressed the people at the ending point after an introductory speech by Sharanaravinda Ojha. Both of them called upon the Government to ensure that the ADM of Cuttack expedite his investigation into SSF allegations that the Servants of the People Society has occupied the Samaja by forging a WILL of Pt. Gopabandhu Das. The Registrar of Newspapers for Orissa was moved by the SSF to quash the false ownership of the Samaja and to take legal action against the miscreants who have been wrongfully posing as owners of the paper. On receipt of this communication from SSF, the RNI has asked the Cuttack ADM to investigate and report. But the ADM has yet to show promptness in the investigation. So the SSF leaders stressed upon expeditious investigation in this matter.

They also stressed upon the urgent need of action against the financial bungling going on in the Samaja, as unveiled by an Inquiry Committee headed by Justice Arijit Pasayat, despite the same being a captive committee of the organization.

They asked the government to look into why the police have not taken any action on well documented information of swindling of the funds of the Samaja by corrupt members of SoPS despite direction of the Orissa High Court in this regard, whereas, the same police officials have framed up the leaders of the Samaja employees in false cases as their trade union activities disadvantaged the very same gang against who well documented FIRs are gathering dusts in the Police Station.

They condemned the management of the Samaja for contravention of labor laws and extermination of work environment in the Samaja and call upon the labor department to initiate and expedite action against the management for unfair labor practices.

Editor of Janatantra Vivekanand Dash came down heavily upon the corrupt fellows that are, in the name of SoPS, busy in all sort of nefarious activities. He called upon the people of Orissa and the State government to wake up for saving the Samaja from the illegal capture of the Manubhai Patel and his gang.

President of UNEA Sri Nayak placed before the public the story of the labor side and focused on how they have been subjected to false cases for their demand for regularisation of employment of persons who for decades have been working in the newspaper without any scope for the welfare schemes created by law for the employees. This inhuman practice needs be foiled, he said while expressing gratitude to SSF for its contributions to the cause of the workers.

Pabitra Maharatha coordinated the event.

Filed under: actionscript, administration, Employees' Issues, law and order, media, news, orissa, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , | 1 Comment »

Cage or kill; it may become a man-eater

Posted on June 5, 2013 by Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

When British buccaneers took Bengal to their control under the bullets of East India Company , its inhabitants competed so much with each other to show them their loyalty that the said buccaneers became Royals to their docile subjects.

The bragging buccaneers termed the land under their occupation as ‘Royal Bengal’ to match their so-called “royalty ” and in the process the Mahabal Bagha (literally meaning ‘a tiger of immense strength’) became “Royal Bengal Tiger”and Mahodadhi (literally meaning ‘unfathomable mass of water, i.e.sea’) became Bay of Bengal.

But, to us in Orissa, the sea at Puri is yet the Mahodadhi, the so-called Royal Bengal Tiger is yet the Mahabal Bagha.

the tiger that has escapedSuch a Mahabal Bagha has jumped out of the 18 feet high enclosure in the night of May 31, a month after it had entered into the Nandan Kanan zoological Park from the adjoining Chandaka forest. While jumping, it has possibly injured its paw, Pieces of its broken nails found on the spot suggest that the great cat has been injured in act of extricating itself from the iron wire mesh used to fortify the enclosure. Up till now the tiger has succeeded in escaping the searching eyes of zoo and forest officials; but its body print marked near a nearby pond suggests that it certainly is not able to speed away. Perhaps the injury while jumping over the 18 ft enclosure has caused him some severe damage.

In such situations, specifically with broken nails in the paw(s), unable to run after wild animals, tigers become man-eaters. Oblivious of this possibility, an official top-brass has said and the mindless media have carried his version, that the tiger seems to be very gentle in nature! This is nonsense. The official either does not know how dangerous to human being a wounded tiger is; or reflects truthfully the syndrome of nonchalance the State administration is afflicted with.

We must not take the risk. The forest officials should be pressed to cage it at any cost sans any delay or to kill it. With broken nails and injuries not yet ascertained, there is every reason to apprehend that the tiger may soon metamorphose into a man-eater. And a man-eater Mahabal Bagha would be a menace that the State should never cherish.

Filed under: administration, Animadversion, Environment, news, orissa, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

India needs it now

Posted on June 2, 2013 by Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Maoism is not a mission of murder, but a means of emancipation. The people who pose as Maoists do not appear to have understood this.

In writing the introduction to M.R.Masani’s famous book: ‘The Communist Party of India – A Short History’ (Derek Verschoyle, London, 1954), Guy Wint had mentioned of the two different political systems India and China had adopted in the initial stage and how economic achievement may justify which of the two systems is correct.

I am tempted to quote a few lines from the same.

“The contemporary history of Asis is strongly dramatic. In the two great land masses, India and china, new orders of government and society came into existence within two years of one another. In India, the Congress State succeeded the British Raj in 1947. In China two years later the Communist Party became master of the whole country, and dedicated it to the principles of Marxism, Leninism and Stalinism as interpreted by Mao Tse-Tung.

“The systems in India and China are opposite poles……………….India the great example of liberalism in Asia, China the first full-fledged example of Asian Communism”. Despite this contrast, “They have one characteristic in common. In neither can it be the aim of government simply to keep an existing social machine in smooth function. In each country the urgent need is for a radical transformation; and the governments are under immense pressure to make themselves responsible for bringing this about. The bane of both countries is poverty and technical and industrial backwardness. The demand of all the educated classes is that this state of affairs should be brought to an end. They want their countries modernized, made strong in relation to other countries, and equipped with industry. They want to end for ever the familiar sights of Asian penury – the beggar, the under-nurished masses, the hovels and slums, the dirt, disease and squalor.

“Inevitably and without intention, India and China have become symbols of the different methods by which economic and social change may be brought about. ………………….“Whichever country shows the more impressive economic progress, India or China, is likely to be accepted as the social, and perhaps the political, leader of Asia”.

China has unambiguously emerged the leader. Her success in economy is so bright and high, and her share in markets of the world is so huge and dominant that not only in Asia but also in the global economic sky she is shining as a leading star.

But India has remained the country of “contradiction” whereinto she had entered on January 26, 1950 on becoming a republic.

“On 26th January 1950, we are going to enter into a life of contradiction”, the author of the Constitution Dr. B. R. Ambedkar had confessed in his concluding speech in reply to the debates on the third reading of the Draft Constitution before its adoption in the Constituent Assembly of India. Despite political equality offered through the right to vote of equal value, right to private property ensured by the Constitution was bound to legalize inequality in economic structure. He had, therefore, warned that unless the post-British Government steers the Parliament to be elected by the people through universal franchise to wipe out concentration of wealth in individual hands in order to undo the inequality, “those who suffer from inequality will blow up the structure of political democracy which this Assembly has so laboriously built up”, he had told the country.(Constituent Assembly Debates, Vol.XI,p.979).

The post-British government failed to steer the Parliament to remove this inequality and therefore the country has been pushed further into the very same contradictions Dr. Ambedkar had warned about. As a result, India has become a country of concentration of wealth in only a few hands and a country of wretched poverty for the maximum majority.

Economic inequality, which Dr. Ambedkar had admitted in the Constituent Assembly to have been woven in the Constitution created by representatives not chosen by the general public but placed in the CA by special arrangement in the pre-independence environment, and which, he had strongly wanted to be quashed by the first Parliament elected by the people, failing which the democracy provided for in the Constitution would eventually be destroyed by victims of inequality, has instead of being quashed, increased many fold after independence. Wealth of the country, money the people pay in form of tax and land revenue, have gone into the hands of the schemers, scamsters, swindlers,trade and industry operators by the help of the compradors who have grabbed political power and transformed Indian democracy to plutocracy with the media controlled by the rich class keeping mum and foreign intelligence agencies generating for them the necessary climate in this country of gullible people overpowered by political sycophants and communal maniacs.

The country has come to such a sorry state that farmers are committing suicides to escape ignominy of inability to repay their loans and mothers are distress-selling their babies to eke out a little food for themselves while nurturing a hope against hope that the sold away babies me get a little nourishment in new environments!

National shame

“This is a national shame”, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had cried while releasing the Hunger and Malnutrition (HUNGaMA) report (2012) prepared by the Naandi Foundation, prepared on in-depth study in 112 districts of the country, that tells us how 42 per cent of our children are underweight and 58 per cent are stunted by the age of 24 months due to malnutrition. The country is running in such a fashion that, 92 per cent mothers have never heard the word ‘malnutrition’, the report has exposed. But Dr. Singh was not ashamed of his role in dragging India into this sordid state of malnutrition.

As far back as in 1989 Amartya Sen and Jean Dreze had written in Hunger and Public Action that about four million people die every year in India from malnutrition and related causes.

This biting tragedy was again focussed in a report of the UNISEF, which, in using NFHS 3, 2005-2006 data, had observed: “In India 20 per cent of children under five years of age suffer from wasting due to acute undernutrition. More than one third of the world’s children who are wasted live in India. Forty three per cent of Indian children under five years are underweight and 48 per cent (i.e. 61 million children) are stunted due to chronic undernutrition, India accounts for more than 3 out of every 10 stunted children in the world”.

But the government’s deliberate apathy to such observations and relentless support to the swindlers of the national wealth has so devastated the people that highly subsidized rice supplied to them at the rate of Rs.2 per Kilogram has become the only way to halt mass starvation deaths.The sad scenario has further deteriorated. The Government has comprehended that the people have not even the ability to pay Rs.2 only per Kg for the subsidized rice, as a result of which a State like Orissa has reduced the rate to rupee one.

Why has it happened?

This has happened; because, the compradors in power have helped their masters grab the national assets.

Wealth-X observation

The Press Trust of India quoting Wealth-X has reported on September 17, 2012 that there are only109 persons in India who represent the top 1.4 per cent of the Ultra High Net Worth (UHNW) population, and control 20.5 per cent of the total fortune attributable to the ultra wealthy segment comprising 7730 super rich individuals that have grabbed the country.

This concentration of wealth in the coffers of a tiny class of the rich has pushed maximum Indians into a state of abysmal poverty, and wretchedness, and slow-starvation and starvation deaths.

Two Indias even in the eyes of the Apex Court

Marking this sordid scenario, Justice Dalveer Bhandari of the Supreme Court of India had to cry on April 21, 2011 in course of a hearing over a petition from the People’s Union for Civil Liberty in matter of public distribution system that the wrong policies of the Government of India has divided the country into two: a small India of the rich and a large India of the poor. From the bench comprising besides him Justice Deepak Verma, he told the Additional Solicitor General, “You cannot have two Indias”, which gave vent to how the apex judiciary is also worried over the misfortune the people of India have been pushed into by the Governments.

Multi-dimensional poverty estimates

International observers of disasters afflicting the people because of anti-people economic policies are also of the same opinion. One such observation available in multi-dimensional poverty estimates developed for UN Development Program by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) in 2010 holds that eight of Indian States – Bihar, Chhatisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal – have more pathetic poor people than the 26 poorest African nations, even though all these Indian States are immensely rich in hardworking manpower, natural resources and intellectual activities. They are such poor because only of exploitation that the rich is perpetrating by the help of their agents in power.

Malnutrition is not a matter of India alone. Even USA and other rich countries have this problem, howsoever marginal be it.

But we will like to see where India and China stand in this matter, specifically as both the countries, to recall Guy Wint quoted supra, had suggested which of the two – political economy of liberalism adopted by India and political economy of Maoism adopted by China – at the initial stage of their emergence as independent countries, would be considered correct on basis of tackling economic backwardness and elimination of hunger.

India and China in worldwide survey


The World Health Organization helps us in this regard. After a worldwide survey, it has put India in the high level of mortality due to malnutrition in comparison with China putting India’s malnutrition death rate at 5.9 as against China’s 1.2 (WTO data 2011).

This establishes that the political economy of liberalism India had adopted and is more vigorously practicing in the present regime has failed and political economy of Maoism that China had adopted and is practicing has succeeded.

Wrong is transforming Maoism to mission of murder

So, there is no wrong in trying to replace India’s present economic policy with Maoist policy.
But wrong is the menace the so-called Maoists are causing in India.

Their conduct is transforming political economy of Maoism into a mission of murder that majority of Indians, by nature addressed to peaceful coexistence, cannot countenance. Therefore their conduct is counterproductive to emancipatory revolution that India needs to build up so urgently to foil plutocracy.

The mission of murder has kept the Maoists isolated in mostly inaccessible forest areas far away from the educated mass, which should have been their strongest support base.

The strength

All over the world the persons of extraordinary erudition, persons of concern for human beings and their habitations, persons of responsible world outlook, persons of perseverance in pursuit of world peace, persons of committed adherence to campaign against exploitation, persons stubbornly opposed to all sorts of oppression and discrimination, are the persons who support Communism.

But mission of murder is not acceptable to them. Those who identify themselves with Maoism, therefore, should shun the mission of murder that has kept them isolated and cultivate these support bases of Communism in right earnest. The world knows the success of China. And the world knows how capitalism is failing.

The weakness

Both the mainstream Communist parties – CPI and CPI(M) – and their so-called socialist allies, having appended themselves to power-grabbers and promulgators of plutocracy in India, have ruined their politico-class character and lost their credibility.

The exception

But Maoists are the exception. They have not run after parliamentary power so far. This is their greatest plus point. T

he country needs their leadership to save herself from the labyrinth of plutocracy which, having no thirst for electoral power and no faith in the present electoral system, only they can provide. Only they can lead the real war of independence that so badly is necessary now.

Let them shun the mission of murder; the Indians who are desperately in search of the way to escape the pernicious net of the right viruses, will embrace them.

The only way and the necessity

Political economy of communism is the only way to emancipation. But, for that, necessary is political education, not the murderous bullets and bombs. They should only be used if the State obstructs such education. And to create the necessary environment to gain legitimacy to impart such political education on Economy of Communism, with arms and ammunitions stashed, Maoists must halt their mission of murder, even if that lands them in danger to their lives exactly as had happened to our freedom fighters in the British regime.

India needs this now.

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If they killed, why did they?

Posted on May 28, 2013 by Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

It is yet to be established beyond doubts that the Maoists in Chhattisgarh have killed the Congress leaders on Saturday; but the Prime Minister has lost no time in condemning the Maoists for the killing. So also the rich media and the elite of the country. The survivors of the attack also allege that the attackers were the Maoists. And, the general public, thus, is in an environment of believing that the attackers were the Maoists.

Words are inadequate to condemn this violence. But we are yet to know why the Government of India run by Dr. Manmohan Singh of the Congress Party and the Provincial Government run by the BJP have not till now told the nation with definite evidence that it is the Maoists and none else that have killed Mahendra Karma and others and so severely injured V.C.Shukla and others in the Bastar ambush.

The Congress leaders were in a massive campaign against the BJP and their campaign was christened ‘Parivartana Yatra’, meaning ‘a march for change’. The BJP was/is to suffer if the Yatra succeeds. So, it is BJP that was/is to be affected by the Congress campaign, not the Maoists. And BJP is also not a non-violent party. It is known for violence for power and/or force against the political adversary.

So, instead of vomiting set jargons of prejudice against the Maoists, the Prime Minister should ensure that a fact finding investigation into who really caused the mayhem and murder is instituted immediately and completed within a stipulated time.

The fact that need not be investigated into is that a set of Congress campaigners for change in Provincial Government were attacked, injured and killed. What needs to be investigated into is that, who did it and why. If the BJP did it, motive is understandable. But, if the Maoists did it, the Government must tell us as to why they did it. Because, unless we reach the root cause, there shall be no remedy.

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May we suggest to the Supreme Court: More than curb on adjournments essential is restriction on admission

Posted on May 23, 2013 by Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

In a recent judgment, the Supreme Court of India, from the bench of Justices K S Radhakrishnan and Dipak Misra has strongly disapproved the delay in dispensation of justice in criminal cases. When the Criminal Procedure Code makes it a must for day-to-day proceeding once examination of witnesses starts, “with impunity” adjournments are being allowed in trial stage at the instances of lawyers; and this is causing the delay in justice and avoidable piling of cases, the Court has observed.

This is a very welcome verdict and if not willfully dishonored, it may help speedy dispensation of justice and reduction of load of litigation. But the Supreme Court has no machinery of its own to know if its judgments are honored and therefore, as we have marked, its verdicts, where more than any individual the general public and/or the system of administration are to benefit, do die of negligence by the authorities concerned. We wish this judgment not to die like this.

However, curb on adjournments cannot be the only remedy to overloading of trial courts with litigation. Most of the criminal cases are manufactured and concocted by the black sheep in police in nexus with criminals eager to escape by falsely implicating the innocent or to settle score by torturing their opponents.

Our judicial system is so defective that the primary court does not think it necessary to go beyond the assortment of accusations to be prima facie convinced that the forwarding officer is not influenced by the accuser.

To the primary courts the police are as if the Gods that cannot be looked at askance. This is why; thousands of false cases are being allowed admission every day in India.

That, most of these cases end in acquittal of the accused is indicative of the fact that they were instituted willfully falsely. But, neither the accuser nor the police officer for whom the judiciary was/is overloaded with false cases is ever punished.

The apex court is to look into this phenomenon if the system is really to be relieved of the load of litigation and avoidable loss of judicial time.

It is essential to make it a must for the primary courts to screen the forwarded cases on the matrix of natural justice before registering the case for adjudication. The person whose right to freedom is set to be affected by a criminal case on admission whereof bail would normally be denied, must have the right to be heard before denial of bail so as, at least, not to make a farce of justice and to ensure that the primary court from which the criminal justice system begins its upward journey does not become by itself the prosecutor.

A progressive case law may be created by the Supreme Court to eliminate this defect in criminal procedure.

Every instance of admission of a criminal case should be preceded with a primary hearing to the extent of the primary court getting prima facie convinced of the credibility of the allegations raised against the accused, specifically as it is being increasingly noticed that prosecution is failing to prove the allegations in majority of police cases leading to acquittal of the accused in the long run.

Very often the police institute false cases against persons disadvantageous to their own illegal activities or under pressure from political fellows in power to harass their opponents or under influence of the accuser determined to settle scores with an adversary.

Accepting the police version, therefore, as prima facie reliable in the primary courts should be discouraged. Otherwise, there shall be no reprieve from overloading of judiciary with cases ultimately in most of them to collapse as baseless and/or not proved.

So, more than curb on adjournments, restriction on admission of criminal cases is essential.

Filed under: actionscript, administration, Animadversion, Editorials, judiciary, law and order, news, orissa, politics, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , | 1 Comment »

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