In Kendrapada Context Satish Gajbhiye deserves praise, not punishment; TV riot be foiled

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

IPS Officer Satish Gajbhiye is at the center of attack by the BJP through its television stooges.

The Congress party, too confused over people’s marked reluctance to revive their support for it, has joined the bogey in a hope against hope that the anarchy over Sarathi baba precipitated by BJP may grant it a chance to make people feel that it has not been totally bereft of striking strength.

Sadly for Orissa, elitism is escaping analytical assessment of its nexus with anti-people political designs. And to further misfortune of Orissa, its Government is often conducting itself in sophomoric pattern, where Cabinet Ministers are taking instructions from the Chief Minister’s private secretary on how to act on files with them.

Had the administration been a bit responsible, Gajbhiye should have received commendation instead of condemnation in shape of instant transfer from Kendrapada for the steps he had taken to save the place from possible mayhem.

The SP personifies the State in matter of policing a district. By transferring him before a correct assessment of the situation that had led him to order the police to act, the government has failed to appreciate that such action has  demoralizing effect on the police.

The BJP and its television stooges had brought the environment to a boiling point and a very horrific incendiary condition had been whipped up, which was going to get out of control.

Had the police not acted sharply, that evening was going to be a night of mayhem. Anybody who had watched the scenario in television and anybody who will see the unedited and unbroken videos of that time, would have no doubt about it.

It was certainly necessary to disperse that mob instantly and forcefully and it was certainly necessary to subject the provocateurs to such visible repression that lurching miscreants should have thought twice before indulging in any immediate illegality.

In doing this or in endorsing this, as the SP of Kendrapada, Gajbhiye had not done any wrong.

I urge upon the Chief Minister to ask the TV channels to submit unedited and unbroken films of their projected matters. They were absolutely incendiary in nature and in design and in voice and in velocity. A little application of mind would make it clear that the situation was getting congeniality even for using of bombs in that muddy environment of unfathomable mass schizophrenia. BJP’s instigating involvement was making the ontogeny of political mischief more aggressive. The TV channels were roaring that the fraud baba was safe, because the Chief Minister was hand-in-glove with him. This was adding ghee to the fire the BJP was igniting. Had Gajbhiye not acted instantly with the essentially needed aggressiveness, many people might have died there in the said evening, as the power hungry political sharks were zooming in.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, in this particular case, deserves all praise for the patience and silence he has displayed.His Government would do better if Gajbhiye is not harassed over his role in Kendrapada.

The subsequent allegations over his property accumulation are matters for him to defend. I want to warn the Government that it shall fail, if the TV riot is not foiled.