Legality of Suspension of Satish Gajbhiye is Questionable; but State Succumbing to Lawyers’ Pressure is Deplorable

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Kendrapada’s former S.P. Satish Gajbhiye has been suspended. Any Government officer can be suspended if the authorities feel that keeping him/her temporarily out of office is necessary in sphere of governance.

Suspension is no punishment, but can be made so, only on final findings to be arrived at through investigations into allegations that form the basis of suspension. And, often the allegations are cooked up, concocted, misconceived, misconstrued, malicious and motivated. In many cases, suspension orders and corresponding disciplinary proceedings are viewed as framed up mischief in the eyes of law.

So, suspension is always questionable.

Satish Gajbhiye’s suspension is therefore questionable.

But, what is deplorable is that, the State Government has succumbed to the pressure of lawyers who had threatened to use collective physical force to derail the scheduled observance of the official flag hoisting on Independence day.

The lawyers have emerged habitual tormentors of justice-seekers as would be seen from their frequent strikes that render the fixed business of the courts inconsequential.

The State has no control over this, as the lawyers are not employees of the State. The courts have no control over this, as the judges do not dare to deny these officers of law the freedom to derail administration of law. The clients do not dare to force their paid brief-holders to refrain from strikes, lest their cases go astray. Every death of a lawyer precipitates impromptu closure of the court as lawyers cease functioning with immediate effect, oblivious of what damage that does to the litigants financially and physically.

Instead of formulating a process to ensure that the lawyers stay addressed only to cases in their hands, the State Government has contributed to their assault capability by succumbing to their demand for action against Gajbhiye.

The allegation that a lawyer was assaulted in Kendrapada, which had turned into a battle ground against Sarathi Raula, is not tenable. The man was never subjected to police action while acting as a lawyer.

If somebody is a lawyer, it is not that he is not a human being. And, a human being indulges in many activities. Some of the activities are vitiated with malice, avarice and politics.

As such, some of the activities of the lawyers, in their role as human beings, are also vitiated with malice, avarice and politics. If such activities are improper, then some activities of the lawyers outside their respective chambers or the concerned courts may also be improper.

Any police action against any such improper activity of any lawyer must not be encouraged to be supported by the community of lawyers to the extent of threatening the flag hoisting on Independence Day, if a particular officer is not suspended. Lawyers being the officers of law have, in this case, clearly gone against the spirit of law that prohibits assumption of guilt before hearing the person hurled at with allegations. Therefore, the Government should have banned the lawyers’ threatening action.

Sad, the Government has obliged the lawyers by putting Gajbhiye under suspended animation.

This is deplorable.

Oriya Bhasa Sangram Samiti applauded in National Conference of Asima Orissa at Chennai

The national conference of Asima Orissa, held at Chennai from August 8 for two days applauded Orissa Bhasa Sangram Samiti for its glorious role in waking up the Government of Orissa to the essential need of governance of the State in mother tongue Oriya.

Samiti Convener Sri Sankar Parida and Joint Convener Subrat Prusti attended the Conference. Delegates from different parts of the country, who have kept abreast of the movement of the Samiti including the recent fast onto death for implementation of the Orissa Official Language Act 1954, wholeheartedly endorsed the five point charter of demands the Samiti has placed before the Government of Orissa, the number one of which is immediate implementation of the 1954 Act.

Sri Parida informed the conference that in the first session of the Joint Action Committee, which the government has formed with the Samiti, responsibility is assigned to famous linguist Dr. Debi Prasanna Pattanayak to formulate a Language Policy for proper implementation of the Act. The next JAC possibly to meet in the last week of this month will concentrate further on the five demands, he said.

On being requested by the delegates, Sri Prusti gave details of the endeavors to get the Classical language status for Oriya. It was a moment of celebration in the conference, which applauded the Samiti for its contributions to the cause of the mother tongue.

No negligence to implementation of the 1954 Act would be tolerated, the conference resolved, while appreciating the new positive stance of the political leadership in matter of implementation of the Act.

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.

Illegal occupiers of the Samaja have made it a play ground of Journalistic Misconduct

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Orissa’s premier newspaper ‘The Samaja’ is occupied and is being looted by Lok Sevak Mandal (Servants of the People Society, New Delhi) by using a Will purported to be of its founder-editor Gopabandhu Das, which is evidently forged by two former ministers of the State – Lingaraj Mishra and Radhanath Rath (The Samaja in Maze of Forgery, Subhas Chandra Pattanayak, published by Save the Samaja Forum, Marketed by A.K.Mishra Agencies Pvt. Ltd and also obtainable through Pabitra Mohan Maharatha at p,maharatha@gmail.com).

Under the Lok Sevak Mandal, the paper has become a playground of forgers and offenders.

It has now become a house of journalistic misconduct inasmuch as its published authors of print editions are being misappropriated in its internet editions without them knowing of this mischief.

One such instance is poet Gajanan Mishra whose fast onto death for implementation of Orissa Official Language Act, 1954 has woke up the state to demand for governance in Oriya language.

I was thrilled to see his article on language movement in the editorial page of the Samaja on August 10. This was the published article in print version:

Gajanasn babu in Samaja_
I wanted to share the same with the global community and therefore I went to its internet edition at www.thesamaja.com.

I found it in editorial bracket. The picture below would show.

Editorial bracket
But when I went to the article, I found it published as editorial of the internet edition where there was no trace of its real author Gajanan Mishra. Peruse the picture –

editorial

It is a clear instance of misappropriation of Gajanan Mishra’s article for its own editorial, hiding the real author from the internet browsers in general and global / non-resident Oriyas in particular, who are keenly watching the Oriya Language Movement.

If anything, this is journalistic misconduct.

Governance of Orissa in Oriya: Gajanan Mishra cries on dubious role of Government

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Governance in Oriya language is birthright of the people of Orissa. But Orissa is under non-Oriya rule. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has ignored the right of the people to be governed in their mother tongue for the last sixteen years, when, through manipulations he has kept the State under his grip. His party is notoriously named after his father Biju Patnaik and all the government programs are intentionally named after Biju, pushing the poor, illiterate people to confusion where official welfare programs are mistaken by the gullible voters as BJD programs, ensuring him victory in elections without any merit.

He considers the people of Orissa as spineless idiots who have tolerated the blatant violation of Orissa Official Language Act 1954 that has mandated that “Oriya shall be the language to be used for all or any of the official purposes of the State of Orissa”.

Despite this offense against Orissa, he can rule as long as his sycophants are able to hijack elections, he feels.

He makes farce of Oriyas by forcing Oriya officers and ministers to stand like Ajnyabakas (Factotums) before his non-Oriya private secretary who has emerged the super chief minister in the eyes of all who have any function in the government.

He does not want Oriya to be a must for governance in Orissa as he himself does not know Oriya.

His father Biju Patnaik was the nastiest ever hypocrite to have ruled over Orissa. His sycophants shamelessly glorify him as an Oriya nationalist ignoring the fact that he was such a man who had not taught a single Oriya alphabet to his son Naveen. It is a national shame for the State that Naveen has not shown any ability to learn Oriya even. He does not understand intricacies of administration and lest his weakness be caught, he has been depending on bureaucratic notes in English.

Implementation of Orissa Official Language Act would throw him out of power within no time. So he and his sycophants in the cabinet never want Oriya to be the language of governance in Orissa.

But not all the people of Orissa are to be befooled. Gajanan Mishra of Titilagarh, Bolangir, certainly not.

He is a lawyer by profession. Since decades, he has been doing his practice in Oriya language. He is drafting his cases in Oriya, conducting his cases in Oriya, prevailing upon the courts to take depositions in Oriya, to record the depositions in Oriya, to hear the arguments in Oriya and to deliver the verdicts in Oriya. His sincerity and dedication to the people’s mother tongue had made a District Judge to instruct all lower Courts to conduct adjudication in Oriya.

This Gajanan Mishra, who is a poet also, has been continuously pressing for governance of the whole of Orissa in Oriya as per the Act of 1954. As all his prayers fell in the deaf ears of Naveen Patnaik, he staged a fasting protest at Bhubaneswar and gave a three months time to the Government for implementation of the Act, failing which he would resort to fast onto death in support of his demand.

And, accordingly, he sat in fast onto death on July 1, 2015. Ms. Madhumita Samal and Sanjib Parida also sat on fast on that day.

Relay fast commenced on the 2nd day with your Representative-in-Chief Subhas Chandra Pattanayak sitting in the strike. This encouraged continuous relay fasting by many luminaries from different walks of life and by 8th July, the whole State was woke up against non-Oriya rule over Orissa, with poets coming from all over the State offering their solidarity though inspiring recitation of their poetries in praise of the mother tongue.

Various organizations working for Oriya language that had decided to support Sri Gajanan Mishra in his fast onto death had amalgamated into a common platform called Oriya Bhasa Sangram Samiti (hereinafter called ‘Sangram Samiti) with poet Sankara Parida as its convener. Under his able stewardship, leaders of all political parties except the ruling BJD were frequenting the strike spot and expressing their solidarity with Sri Mishra.

Situation was going out of control for the Government which was in a deep quagmire over blatant mismanagement of Jagannatha’s Navakalevar.

In such circumstances, a team of ministers, in the name of the Chief Minister, proposed to implement Mishra’s demand and begged for breathing time to first finish the Navakalevar event and then to finalize the date for implementation of the Act of 1954 in a Joint Action Committee (JAC) to be notified on obtaining the list of representatives of the Sangram Samiti.

The date for this JAC with five ministers on one part and seven representatives of the Sangram Samiti on the other part was fixed to August 1 and accordingly Gajanan babu ended his fast on July 8 to the announcement of the above agenda by the Law Minister of the State on the fasting podium.

The Government created a legal instrument (SANKALPA) on the 31st July with a single TERM OF REFERENCE seeking direction on how to implement the Orissa official Language Act. But, surprisingly it brought in BJD MP Baishnab Parida to derail the scheduled discussion and Linguist Dr. Devi Prasanna Pattanayak under whose cover it was trying to escape. Under this instrument, it eliminated our status as Representatives of Bhasa Sangram Samiti by transforming all of us to “nominated members” of the Ministerial Committee, even though, de facto, it was to act the JAC.

On this Term of Reference only decisions were to be taken on August 1. There was no question of any discussion with Baishnab Parida, as MP of the ruling party, as suggested by his sitting amongst the ministers.

Instead of working on the Term of Reference, MP Parida raised uncalled for hubbubs and tried to derail the discussions.

The Government was and is free to discuss with him and any number of persons in matter of its role in Official Language Act. But, as far as its promise to Gajanan Mishra and fellow fasting strikers and the Sangram Samiti is concerned, bringing in Baishab Parida to make unnecessary noise to derail the discussion is a naked act of betrayal.

We doubt, as Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is afraid that he cannot function if Oriya becomes the compulsory language of governance, and Officers who have been cheating the State by operating only in English, the Government  have resorted to tricks to delay the implementation of the Official Language Act.

Sri Gajanan Mishra, in this context, has placed the facts before the people of Orissa in a detailed edit-page article in Samaja today. I am placing below his article.

Peruse it and rise to the cause, dear brothers and sisters.

Gajanan Mishra in Samaja

Editor's Picks

Oriya Language created Orissa and therefore Orissa must be ruled by Oriya Language

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik seems to have developed a wrong notion that governance of Orissa in Oriya depends upon his mercy. His press-note of December 17 and full page display advertisement in major broadsheets of today force us to arrive at this apprehension.

In his December 17 press note it was declared that he had held a meeting with the five members of the ministerial committee on that day for the purpose of “strictly implementing the Orissa Official Language Act, 1954 in official and non-official level” to facilitate which a website has been floated by the government. In the full page multi-color advertisement in broadsheet dailies today, this is intriguingly missing.

The advertisement is designed to tell the people that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has taken historical steps to save and develop Oriya language, and has enumerated the steps he has taken. This is blatant lie. Neither he nor his government has executed any single item claimed to be “historical” in the official advertisement. The entire advertisement is nothing but false propaganda. What a shame it is, that, the people of Orissa are taken for granted by their Chief Minister! Read more →

Navakalevara: Legends and reality

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Legends are the most misguiding mischief aimed at superimposing lies on reality so that indigenous people of an occupied land are kept too dazzled to see the dark face of the rulers and the class of exploiters can keep its victims subjugated to its authority, while forcing them to forget the heroic history of evolution of their own philosophy of life, their own splendid spiritual realizations, their own socio-economic uniqueness, their own ancient culture, their own valorous past, their own way of social integration and their own civilization.

We see this mischief galore in the context of Navakalevara of SriJagannatha.

So, here, we are to rip apart the legends and bring the reality of the Navakalevara to light, as thereby alone we can reach the lost uniqueness of the people of Orissa.

We will use Puri Sankaracharya’s self-proclaimed authority over Navakalevara to proceed with our purpose.

  Read more →

Samaja in Maze of Forgery: Two former Ministers of Orissa – Lingaraj Mishra & Radhanath Rath forged the WILL of Gopabandhu; Both benefitted till their death; SoPS continues to Loot

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

The Oriya daily SAMAJA founded by late Utkalmani Pandit Gopabandhu Das, to which, out of their love and reverence for the great humanitarian leader, the people of Orissa had and have been giving their financial and moral support, is in a menacing maze of forgery and loot.

Sadly, two of Gopabandhu’s trusted men – Lingaraj Mishra and Radhanath Rath – who, because of being known so, had the opportunity of becoming cabinet ministers in Orissa, were the masterminds and/or makers of the forgery from which the paper is yet to be salvaged.

Both of them – Lingaraj and Radhanath – had partnered with each other in forging the last WILL of Gopabandhu to grab the Samaja, which being Gopabandhu’s paper was of superb credibility and the greatest political instrument of the day. They had performed this crime behind the screen of and in nexus with Servants of the People Society (SoPS), of which, while breathing his last, Gopabandhu was the Vice-President. Read more →