Subhas Chandra Pattanayak
An organization in non-Government sector, styled as Basanti Trust with its headquarters under Chandrasekharpur P.S. of Bhubaneswar, has attracted public wrath as, after rescue of 24 young girls by the Police from its premises,the locals came to know that the girls were allegedly stationed there for sex exploitation. It eventually transpired that the Trust’s sex racket hub has been using the name of Biju Patnaik as its brand name.
Biju Patnaik in his lifetime was known for many facets including such ugly ones that the peoples of Orissa were getting provoked to oust him from power time and again, the last instance being, when he died, he was not in power as voters had refused to give him a fresh mandate. In his long but checkered career in politics he had been able to occupy the Chief Minister post only twice and was conspicuous in Orissa politics by being rejected at least for two consecutive terms after being placed in power for one term. Even when in power, he was facing public wrath for his rampant misrule, which is evidenced from the fact that he had to resign in the middle of his first term as CM at the summit of a massive and acrimonious strike by the students and the youth against his naked practice of corruption and in his second term, which was his last term as CM, his misrule was so unbearable that his own staff in the secretariat had manhandled him. There is elaborate and exclusive exposure of this facet in these pages and in saubhasya.com for perusal of those who cannot reach my book Simhavalokanare Biju Patnaik, published by Bharata Bharati, Cuttack and the e-book of the same title being marketed by the news syndicate.
But I must say, use of his name as brand name of a suspected sex racket hub is something that had not happened so far. To me, it is an obnoxious misuse of the name of a man to whom there are a lot of peoples in Orissa who pay posthumous respect.
Every human being has his dark side and Biju babu was a human being. So he had a dark side too. But in his bright side, he was seen as a brave and magnanimous man. For this bright side, which was unique, even the people that were opposing him politically, never hesitate to remember Biju Patnaik with love.
It is therefore unthinkable that a man, suspected to have been operating a sex racket, had been enjoying official patronage in Navin Patnaik’s regime, so far, in running the hub named as “Biju Patnaik Destitute Home”.
But for this posthumous misuse of his name, I will hold his son Navin Patnaik squarely responsible. The junior Patnaik knows that he captured power in Orissa by posthumous use of Biju as his political launching pad and, despite the misrule he has given, he has been able to hoodwink the peoples of Orissa till date only by posthumous political use of his father’s name. So, in order to stay in power he has tried to add arbitrarily Biju’s name to almost all the ventures that under his Chief Ministership the State Exchequer is forced to fund.
This has become such a mania that every dishonest person, who tries to get government grants in any form, is, as a stratagem, using Biju’s name as his / her concern’s brand name.
No wonder, a reported sex racketeer has named his hub after him.