Subhas Chandra Pattanayak
In these pages, Anil Agrawal’s design to have a “commercial hub” on the most sensitive sea shore near Puri in the guise of a so-called world class university has been earlier exposed. The Orissa Lokpal has expressed shock over rape of laws by the State Government in acting Agrawal’s acolyte in grabbing his desired land and has wanted action against the politico-bureaucratic pimps because of whom the laws are so raped.
But it is more shocking to see that a major newspaper of Orissa – Sambad – has used its pages to brainwash the people that are opposing allocation of land at Puri to Agrawal for his commercial hub styled Vedenta University.
The nefarious design is given a news shape that goes on to say that continuous opposition to allocation of the Puri land to Vedanta University has put its shift to Andhra Pradesh on motion. It has tried to mislead the people of Orissa by saying that Andhra Chief Minister has offered 4000 acres of land anywhere Agrawal prefers in the province as his State needs the world class university.
How media organizations are acting as facilitators of plutocracy by spreading “paid news” is not new to our observation. In these pages, we have shown how mediacracy has become dangerous to democracy. Much after we exposed the syndrome, Press Council of India had recently resolved to have a study on it. But, the pimps are so powerful that it had to suppress its own finding on “paid news”.
So, “paid news” is increasingly being used as “news” to mislead the general public by miscreants, politicians, power mongers, land grabbers, mines looters and all sorts of economic offenders.
Against this backdrop, the Sambad news referred to supra is not surprising. But it is certainly shocking as the paper, so far seen as a dedicated carrier of indigenous interests of Orissa, has indulged in serving the interest of a concern that has corrupted Orissa administration to bag benefits at the cost of indigenous people.
The shady operator has a few contact killers that are trying to kill Oriya conscience from foreign soil in the name of world class university even though the said term has not been defined in the Act formulated/framed by Navin Patnaik Government for the Vedanta University so far. Sambad, inadvertently or willfully, has joined the club of the conscience killers.
It has forgotten that the ultimate beneficiary of its new campaign is a polluter that has ruined Bansadhara and her river-system. It has severely jeopardized the unique eco-system of Niyamagiri. It has already pushed lakhs of indigenous Oriyas into the labyrinth of slow poison emitted from its alumina refinery in Lanjigarh. And, it has corrupted the administration to bag benefits and is being opposed to by massive majority of the Oriyas.
From amongst the entire population of Oriyas, only a couple of persons are supporting Vedanta. If Sambad has failed to see this reality, it is perhaps for the pollution that the Press in Orissa has been subjected to by this purchaser of elite support.
In interest of Orissa, notwithstanding what its campaigners say, natural resources of Orissa need be saved from its avarice and people of Orissa need be saved from exploitative conspiracy and Press of Orissa need be saved from being gained over to mislead the people and hence the polluter needs be kicked out.