Orissa Matters

Four Books from Bibudharanjan where concern for people has its Speaking shape

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Four new books of Bibudharanjan reached my hands yesterday. They are DHANA NUHEN DHYANA (Introspection needed, no wealth), UTHA HE PATHIKA (Wake up, Traveller), BANDHANA BHITARU ASA MUKULI (Come out of the Cocoon of Bondage) and AMANIA KALAMA (The Pen that refuses Bondage).

Revolutionary books par excellence. All are compilations of his popular, yet serious columns. Each book has a message to whosoever feels concerned for the people. I am samples from each of the books, translating them into English for esteemed visitors to this site.

“Man is burning in the fire of endless desire. But is there any remedy in reality? How the fire could be extinguished? It can; but, if we want it, we are to change our attitude to life. The question is, how to see the life, how to understand life, how to understand subconscious actions and aims, how to see sense in the dark cell where you stay. If you could locate that dark cell once, you will see yourself illuminated with rays as if of a hundred of Suns; because awoken conscience is light. Then you will find the way to extinguish the pernicious fire that is consuming you. Man is burning within in the fire of his desire; but seeking redressal outside. It won’t help. To extinguish the fire of desire that has engulfed you, you are to find the water source in your own self”. (Pages 31-32, DHANA NUHEN DHYANA)

“Matha, Mandira, Masjid, Church, Gurudwara etc are planting seeds of envy, enmity and hatred for man in the man. Who is separating man from man? Who stands as the dividing wall between man and man? Is that wall made of bricks and cement? No. Not at all. That wall is Mandira, that wall is Masjid, that wall is religion, that wall is bigotry. One must cogitate, how can these dividers that separate man from man, be considered capable of uniting man with the God? No, this is impossible. Impossible” (Page 10, UTHA HE PATHIKA)

“In this world, unhappiness comes from the worries. Otherwise not. Whosoever understands this, achieves peace and becomes happy. Worries owe their origin to the sense of authority. Once sense of authority is sloughed over, worries evaporate. But, you want to get rid of authority while reluctant to give up authority. You always want the world to know that you have done this and that; you want to inscribe your signature on the pages of history. As long as this attitude is not changed, worries shall keep you engulfed”. (Page 92, BANDHAN BHITARU ASA MUKULI)

“When old temples and spiritual places are increasingly in ruins in villages and towns, instead of taking steps to repair and preserve them, what is the purpose behind erection of so many new temples? The only purpose is earning money by exploiting God-fearing persons. Today there is no practice of spiritualism in temples and asylums. Under the cover of religion, they run commercial hubs like hotels in the name of Prasad vending, Mandaps for marriages and suchlike events along with catering. xxxxxx The more the temples the denser is darkness in minds of the man. At par with rise in numbers of temples, in numbers of Babas and Matas, illicit activities like law-braking, moral turpitude, misdemeanors, corruption and rapes are spreading”. (Page 91, AMANIA KALAMA)

All the four books are published by Pragnaloka, Tala Malisahi, Puri 2 and marketed by Time Pass, Bhubaneswar. The author’s son Gurujee Shwetachandan has done the cover-designs.

Happiest News for Orissa: Prasad is PCC Chief

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

The happiest news for Orissa is that Mr. Prasad Harichandan has been appointed today as the President of Orissa Pradesh Congress Committee.

Honored as the First Best Legislator of the State in 2002, Prasad had put his golden signature in Orissa politics by being the most glaring candidate of Congress against Biju Patnaik in 1990.

Since his first entry into Orissa Assembly in 1995, he has enriched legislative businesses in every respect.

His efficient and sustained efforts to espouse outstanding public demands and his legislative wisdom marked in matters of law making as well as debating on topical issues has made tremendous contributions to refinement of administration.

He has earned distinction as a highly disciplined Congress leader for his exemplary participation in all major fronts of his party – the National Students Union, Indian Youth Congress and the Party proper.

Protection of environment and wild life, preservation of culture and social values are areas where his silent but steady contributions have made their unique marks.

Most importantly, he is a man of erudition, of research and knowledge.

As a minister, even though the time was short and the period was transitional, he had made the best use of his position in giving Orissa the only University of Culture of India – the Utkal university of Culture.

Orissa’s Institute of Mathematics and Application owes its origin to the efforts of Prasad. The concept of Community Policing was also his.

He is a successful fighter who has disproved the outstanding aphorism of Lord Acton that “power tends to corrupt”. He is, despite long innings in positions of power including ministership, has never indulged in any corruption.

In him, people of Orissa – in disaster by the ruling BJD; and by nature, abhorrent to communal BJP – see the best answer to their search for a leader who can bring in the desired change.

Prasad has a unique distinction of being an absolutely non-controversial personality in the Congress party. So, to save the State from BJD misrule and lurking BJP menace, it is expected that the Congress rank and file will unitedly stand with him.

Inviolability of Official Language Act desecrated by Orissa Assembly: Governor should refuse Assent

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

The winter session of Orissa Assembly that suffered premature death as the Chief Minister who commands brutal majority decided not to be answerable, has, however, been able to pass certain Law Bills drafted not at all in Oriya, but only in English language.

In passing the said Law Bills, de facto surreptitiously, under cover of the deafening commotions, the Government has blatantly violated the Orissa Official Language Act 1954, and if the Governor gives them his assent, the Laws thus made would be illegal.

The Opposition had rightly demanded for recall and rejection of the adopted Bills as they are written only in English; but the Speaker has ruled that Bills made in English are not unfit to be adopted, as English is in use in the Assembly.

The Speaker’s ruling is not challengeable in any court of law, the treasury bench is convinced. But the Governor has the right to deny his assent to the adopted Bills, because notwithstanding what the Speaker has ruled, presentation of Bills only in English was violative of Orissa Official Language Act, and, therefore, illegal. The legislative body adopting an illegal Bill is illegal.

When the Act in original had made it a must that Oriya is “to be used for all or any of the official purposes of the State of Orissa”, Biju Patnaik – father of present Chief Minister, who has not taught his son a single alphabet in Oriya – had sabotaged the primacy of Oriya language by amending this Act in 1963, in order to satisfy his personal ego of elitism and to please the non-Oriya officers, who, like their fathers in neighboring States, were always against the mana of Oriya language.

Biju was the greatest political hypocrite of his time equipped with uncanny ability to hoodwink anybody. After grabbing the Chief Minister position, he used his position for his self interest, indulged in all sorts of corruption and even sabotaged the country during Chinese aggression. Yet, he had claimed his steps to be patriotic and motivated with sacrifice for the people! Anybody who searches for Biju in these pages will get the evidences.

Destroying the spirit of Orissa Official Language Act 1954 was not a problem for this shrewd operator. He engineered an amendment in the Act in 1963. The amendment added English to be the language for use in the Assembly; but lest the people revolt, the amendment said, English would be used “in addition to Oriya”, not in exclusion of Oriya.

This shrewd amendment opened the road for use of English to the detriment of Oriya as the language of administration. Biju Patnaik had thus destroyed utility value of Oriya Language; but yet, in fear of public wrath, he had not dared to undo the primacy of Oriya language in businesses of the Orissa Assembly. The amendment had allowed English to be used IN ADDITION TO ORIYA.

The Opposition had, therefore, rightly demanded for recall and nullification of the Bills made in English language alone. The Speaker’s Ruling that there is no wrong in Bills written only in English, is, therefore, wrong.

The Orissa Assembly has clearly done a wrong to Orissa by adopting Bills written only in English, not in Oriya. But nobody except the Governor can protect the mana of Oriya at this stage.

We urge upon the Governor to refuge his assent to the Bills adopted in blatant contravention of Orissa Official Language Act. The Act, despite the treacherous amendment in 1963, has the inviolable stipulation that Oriya shall be the language of Law, “in addition” to which, English may be entertained. When the Bills were not written in Oriya, but only in English, they violated the inviolable stipulation laid down in Orissa Official Language Act, 1954.

The Governor should appreciate this position of Law and refrain from giving the Bills written only in English, his assent.

The Legislative Assembly must not be allowed the luxury of making Laws in ways that are basically illegal.

Better to look at the Dogs

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

This is my elder grand daughter Kuhu (Adwiteeya Mohapatra) as she was seen last year while watching the Bhubaneswar Dog Show,organized by Orissa kennel Club. She is now in Class Two in Delhi Public School – Kalinga and has contributed the pictures used in this posting.

Last year, while editorializing our report on the Dog Show, we had call upon the State Government for allocation of land in the capital city to the OKC for a permanent Dog Park on the grounds we had elaborated therein. A click here would lead to that plea. The government is yet to pay attention to this urgent need.

In absence of a permanent park, Dog Shows are being organized in inclement conditions, shifting from place to place each year. This year the venue was the ground of Unit I high school. But, it was also a last moment arrangement, Originally, the Show was scheduled to be held at the Government Boys High School play ground at Unit VI.

The new venue was location wise a disaster to Dog Shows as separated just by a compound wall from Bhubaneswar’s largest vegetable market, the dogs were severely affected and detracted by the stupendous noise of the market. But, for the Kennel Club organizers, there was no choice.

The participation was, like previous years, tremendous. Besides participants from Bhubaneswar and other parts of Orissa, Dogs came from outside the State like Assam, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Andra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu.

Judges were Mr. Roberto Santos Tesoro from Philippines, Mr. C. V. Sudarsan and Mr. C. R. Patnaik, both acclaimed Judges of Kennel Club of India.

There were participation from Toy Group comprising Chihuahua (long coat), Miniature Pinscher, Pekingese, Pomeranian, and Pug; from Terrier Group comprising American Staffordshire Terrier, Fox Terrier (Smooth), and Welsh Terrier; Utility Group having Akita, Bull Dog, Dalmatian, French Bull Dog, Poodle (Standard), and Shih Tzu; Hound Group represented by Afghan Hound, Beagle, Dachshund Standard (Long Haired), Dachshund Standard (Smooth Haired), and Whippet; Gun Dog Group represented by Cocker Spaniel (American), Golden Retriever, Iris Setter, Labrador Retriever, Pointer, Spaniel English Springer; Working Group including Alaskan Malamute, Boxer, Bullmastiff, Doberman Pinscher, Dogo Argentino, Great Dane, Mastiff (English), Rottweiler, Saint Bernard, Siberian Husky, Tibetan Mastiff; and from Pastoral Group comprising Belgian Shepherd Dog (Malinois) and German Shepherd Dog.

Kuhu captured some of the pleasant moments:

We earnestly appeal again to the authorities to give the Orissa Kennel Club the Orissa Kennel Club a gift of at least one Acres of land in a central location in the city of Bhubaneswar for a permanent Dog Park, in view of Dog Shows attracting national participation as shown supra. The land can be used for useful training of dogs and purposes as mentioned in our original discussion on the subject under the (already linked to) caption:

Bhubaneswar badly needs a Dog Park

There was no Assembly; there was anarchy, only anarchy

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Air is a must for the people to live. Food is a must for the people to live. Water is a must for the people to live. Society is a must for the people to live.

But Assembly is not a must for the people to live, if viewed from the angle of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. This is where, anyone who loves the Country that Baji Raut’s blood had contributed to create, cries in pain.

In the preceding post I have shown how he was instigating his party MLAs to create commotions in the well of the House so that Opposition demand for debates on chit fund stays stymied.

Shameful, yet vivid details of how on the first day of the session, the treasury benches engineered the ruckus and resultant adjournment by deliberate use of a loudmouth minister Pradeep Maharathy in harassing a lady MLA of BJP with sexual slangs, has come out in newspapers and TV channels, some of which even have their natal links with some of the close colleagues of the Chief Minister.

Maharathy’s monkey business was engineered when the chit fund felony was sure to be discussed, as the Speaker had with him the Opposition’s adjournment notice and the collateral call attention notice from the treasury side on the subject, against a background that was crying for the debate.

Scenario that cried out for debate

The scanning of the Chief Minister’s shadow Saroj Sahu by CBI, and the unveiling of the Chief Minister as the godfather of chit fund cheat Prasant Dash of SeaShore, and metamorphosis of a pack of the CM’s close colleagues to the status of under-trial prisoners for their roles in chit fund deals, and increasing suspicion that the chit fund crooks were mere frontmen of the Chief Minister et cetera had built up strong justification for the Assembly to take up the debate on chit fund in supersession of all other businesses. But, instead of leading the House to this necessary debate, the Leader of the House – the Chief Minister himself – instigated his sycophants to put the Assembly in strangulation till death of the session, to evade the debate on chit fund.

Why the Assembly?

In a democracy, the Government is required to convene the Assembly to place before the representatives of the people the details of its programs for betterment of the people, and to seek collective wisdom of the representatives of the people on issues affecting the State, and to explain its accounts to the representatives of the people for knowledge and approval of the people, and to report its actions taken on lacunae located by CAG and other authorized bodies so that the representatives of the people can approve or advise as they deem proper, and to answer the questions raised by the representatives of the people on various facets of administration, and to refine its Law Drafts with the legislative wisdom of the Opposition to help the people with Acts and Rules that they may use for better management of their affairs, and to obtain permission of the representatives of the people to spend for implementation of the ongoing and proposed programs from the State exchequer and funds generated.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has blatantly failed in this duty to democracy as the aborted session of Orissa Assembly has so emphatically shown. Legislative responsibility stayed subservient to arrogance of power, as the Leader of Opposition has observed.

Unseen Mischief

This arrogance comes from the massive majority he has captured by confusing the people, by naming all welfare programs of the Government by the name of his father matching the name of the party he heads and begs votes for.

Effect of inanition

For the voters, who constitute the massive majority of the population, it was impossible to understand this mischief; because, continuous slow starvation had pushed them into such a shocking state of inanition, that, comparing manifestos, analyzing political economies, locating class characters, keeping composure and casting votes for class interest was not possible for them.

That they have lost their vigor and intelligence to understand the intricacies of election and necessity of preferring the correct candidate is proved by the very fact that they have been digesting the ignominy of thriving in slow starvation with the almost entirely subsidized rice supplied to them at the rate of Rs.1 only per kg.

And, when majority of voters are in such a state of inanition, it was not difficult for the candidates of the ruling party with bulging purses and rains of promise, to flow in into the Assembly with overwhelming strength exactly as filthy water flows in into the river systems with destructive strength during a flood.

Result is that, the Assembly session could be aborted midway without working normally for even a day, with the Chief Minister escaping accountability.

As we saw, there was no Assembly; there was only government ignited anarchy.

At the end, an Oriya Axiom

The scenario portends a severe end; because, every anarchy ends severely.

It would be better for the Chief Minister’s sycophants, who dazzle under the pretentious feeling that their strength is never to wane, to pause, peruse and understand an Oriya axiom that suggests how severe their end shall be. Here it is:

ADHAMA BITTA BADHE BAHUTA, GALAA BELE JAE MULA SAHITA

(Achievement may reach the highest stage through illegal ways, but ends with total extinguishment.)

Their cult father Biju had experienced the correctness of this axiom.

The sycophants may do better in seeing the perfectness of this axiom in their supremo’s loss of courage to face the Opposition in the Assembly. Abrupt end of the Assembly session is indicative of beginning of the end of this strength-blind Government.

People need a Chief Minister, not a Scourge

And, if they want to save their government, it should be better for them to make Naveen Patnaik understand that in him, the State expects a Chief Minister, not a scourge.

Biju, by whose name the BJD is known, after occupying the Chief Minister post with unprecedented strength in 1961, had become such a scourge that we, then the youth and students of this State, had built up the strongest ever campaign to save our motherland from his selfish and corrupt grip. History has recorded this reality.

Even his Party – Indian National Congress – was sure that his stay in power would be a disaster for the people. Therefore, he was shunted out of Office under the pretense of Kamaraj Plan. Despite that, as he continued to act super Chief Minister from the podium of the State Planning Board, we, the student and youth of Orissa, had to rise in revolt to see him ousted from every position of power. His then supporters in the Congress party had tried to save him from the CBI inquiry and qualifying penal prosecution; and, it is well known to the history that, the people of Orissa had punished the Congress Party mercilessly in the election of 1967 for the sin of supporting Biju.

The Naveen sycophants should read this history and amend their steps, if they want to survive in power.

In Naveen Patnaik, the people need their leader, not a godfather of chit fund operators. In him the people need their benefactor, not a comprador. In him the people need an enhancer of the dignity of the Assembly, not its destroyer. The sycophants should tell him of this, in their own interest also.

To him, let it be said, that, for the people, the Assembly is never discardable, but is always desirable.

And, the people shall never stay away for ever from establishing that, they are the sovereign, and the Republic belongs to them.