Stop Torturing Illustrious Participants In Bhasa Andolan, Dear Chief Minister Of Orissa And Accept The Demand

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak
I HAVE POSTED THE FOLLOWING IN SOCIAL MEDIA

“Mr. Naveen Patnaik, look at this picture. Tortured, as your police did not allow the peaceful silent march of Bhasa Andolan in order to ensure your entry into or exit from the secretariat like an autocratic royal, this eminent freedom fighter, who had joined the Bhasa Andolan in black-flag demonstration against illegal governance of Orissa in non-Oriya language, and against habitual contravention of Orissa Official Language Act by your government including yourself, collapsed to the ground. He is Bhavani Charan Patnaik, senior-most living freedom fighter at the age of 95. Whether or not you know, he was very close to your father Biju Patnaik and that your father had become the chief minister of Orissa, was possible, because of his close friends like Bhavani Babu.

We have every right to demand for governance of Orissa in Oriya, which you have been denying us. We have every justification in demanding that Rules be made to punish whosoever contravenes the Orissa Official Act, 1954.

We have given your government a draft Rules on which your administration has been nonchalantly sleeping for many months.

Against this willful assault on our mother-tongue and on our innumerable brothers and sisters who do not know any language than our mother tongue Oriya, we have been conducting the protest black-flag rally, under notice to your government, silently, daily since 13th April at 5 pm, which starts from the front of the Assembly where stands the sacred statue of Naba Krushna Chowdhury, who had given us the Orissa Official Language Act, and ends at the sacred statue of Kulagourav Madhu Sudan Das, whose matchless sacrifices has given us our motherland, on its podium in front of the Governor’s House, in order to educate you that, in Orissa non-Oriya rule shall no more be allowed to ruin our people.

You are not allowing yourself to get educated. Instead, you are whimsically, on whichever day you like, entering into or going out of the secretariat at this particular time to make the police halt our peaceful march.

Dear Chief Minister, we have all respect for you as the highest political executive of our province. This respect shall grow, if you accept our request for creation of Rules to punish whosoever contravenes the Official Language Act, wherein it has been laid down that, for all or any official purpose in Orissa, Oriya shall be the language.

For any offense against any law, there is punishment. In this Law, there was also the provision. But the punishment clause has been secretly deleted from this Act by the non-Oriya conspirators. Therefore, we want Rules to punish whosoever contravenes the basic Law of Orissa, i.e. the Orissa Official Language Act, 1954.

Please understand the issue and ask the police not to halt our peaceful march any further.

If you declare that you have understood the issue and act to amend the Act to provide for punishment against violation thereof , we shall welcome the same and stop the protest rally

The pictures below will also show how on different days your irregular entry or exit into or from the secretariat has tortured illustrious participants in the silent and peaceful black-flag march.