Subhas Chandra Pattanayak
Iron lady of humanitarian activism Medha Patekar has come down heavily on Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik after a visit to Kalinga nagar massacre site on Feb 11.
He has certainly erred, she felt. If not he, who shall be held responsible for the cold blooded murder of 12 illiterate tribal citizens who did not do any crime other than calling upon the State to protect their fundamental right over howsoever tiny might be their plots of land, she asked.
The tribal gathering on Tata’s boundary building site was not a confrontation with the State. They had been praying the State to save their property from the industrial avarice and on the 2nd January 06 their gathering was a simple manifestation of their collectively seeking State-aid. But, the State acted against its own people and perpetrated the unexpected and unprovoked mayhem.
When the tribals were expressing their resentment continuously for so many months, was it not the duty of Naveen Patnaik to direct his government to take up conciliation over the matter and to ensure that the poor and proletariat get justice in respect to their sources of livelihood? She asked.
To tell the least this is worst instance of brutality that a government in free India has ever perpetrated on its innocent, illiterate and jungle-dependant people. She shall attract attention of the world community to this brutality, declared Medha.