Subhas Chandra Pattanayak
It was expected that Hon’ble Chief Minister Sri Naveen Patnaik would correct himself by bringing in a fresh Bill for correct amendment of the Orissa Official Language Act, 1954. hereinafter called the Act. There is no such Bill within the knowledge of the Assembly.
The last session of the Assembly was blatantly misled by the Chief Minister represented by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Bikram Arukh to pass a wrongfully coined amendment to the Act, which, after receiving the Governor’s assent, has become a part of the Act and unless repealed, would de jure kill the essence of the Act in practice. The anti-Oriya Orissa administration has played its nastiest game against the people of Orissa by enacting ‘The Odisha Official Language (Amendment) Bill, 2018, the mischief of which escaped the legislative wisdom of the MLAs, eager as the were to pass a Bill for enhancement of their salary and perks.
On going through the Bill, I had discussed its mischief in details in an article in these pages and had tried my best to convince as many MLAs as possible to reject the Bill or to bring in amendment thereto on the basis of the points raised by me. Sad, the Bill was passed sans proper application of legislative mind.
The notorious Bill reached the Governor after a lot of time and I submitted a Memorandum to the Governor urging upon him not to give it his assent, as thereby the same would put the very Act in atrophy. Only the Governor can say why was he unable to pay heed to this Memorandum and ruined the Act by not returning the Bill to the Assembly, when to save the Law from evil impact of a deficient and mischievous Bill is his Constitutional Responsibility.
As the notorious Bill was assented to 23 June 2018, having no other way to save my mother tongue from the tongue of the new instrument, I requested the Chief Minister to take immediate steps to ensure repel of the notorious amendment passed by the Assembly on May 01, 2018 in his absence and to bring in a fresh amendment in the next session of the Assembly, so that the Act should work sans any problem.
Instead of acting to amend the wrong done to Oriya Language, the Chief Minster gained over two of my colleagues who declared without any authority that the Black Flag Campaign propounding the demand for amendment of the Act to ensure flawless working of the Act would stay postponed till the Assembly, as the Finance Minister, on behalf of the Government, has assured them that the amendment stressed upon by me would be brought in certainly in the coming session, which is the current session, of the Assembly. People of Orissa rejected their design and the Black Flag Campaign continues. But the two fellows, Pradyumna Satpathy and Pabitra Maharatha, gained over by the government are silent, as there is no proposal before the Assembly to bring in the necessary amendment. These fellows have sabotaged the Oriya Language the like of which had never hit it earlier.
Bhasha Andolan has quashed its informal leadership and constituted a formal Committee to lead the movement henceforth till the goal is achieved.
The Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik as well as the Parliamentary Affairs Minister Bikram Arukh having clearly and unambiguously breached the privilege of the Assembly, as elaborated under the links above, in a Press Conference held on September 4, the Bhasha Andolan has demanded that the Legislative Assembly being the most auspicious and august seat of sovereignty, it should subject the above named two politicians to privilege proceedings,so that, no CM or Minister would dare to take the Assembly for granted in future.
The Press was addressed by me in the august presence of Dr. Kulamani Nayak, Pramod Kumar Dev, Kamal Lochan Nayak, Bira Kishore Behera, Manas Pattanayak, Bhabani Shankar Parija and Sanjib Patry. Below is the live telecast from the Conference: