Orissa Matters

SUPPLEMENTARY BUDGET: STRESS ON NAXAL ELIMINATION THAN ON IRRIGATION

Finance Minister Prafulla Ch. Ghadai placed before the Orissa Assembly on November 19 the first supplementary statement of expenditure for the year 2009-10 amidst chaos over the Opposition’s stress on the need for obituary honor to farmers that embraced death through suicide being forced by unending negligence of administration to agriculture.

Discernibly drafted on deficient economy, the statement addresses planned sector with Rs.1322 crores and non-planned sector with Rs.1231 crores.

Glimpses of what character it belongs to comes to gaze when one goes through the priority given to funds allocation. For an instance, one may look at lift irrigation and naxal extermination. Lift irrigation in Orissa, not only stunted in growth, but also defunct due to chronic official negligence, is a sector that needs more funds for agro-activities in the State. By sacrificing their lives, one after one, the farmers of Orissa have shown how important it is to invest more funds in lift irrigation. But the present instrument pledges only Rs. 20 crores to this sector whereas allocation of Rs.34.12 crores is drafted for extermination of Naxals even though thereby agro-productivity, which is essential for people’s sustenance, will not get any booster.

An impromptu impression that one gets from Ghadai’s presentation is that the budget is a hoodwinking project.

How the Assembly looks at it is a matter to be observed.

ANTI-FARMER MOTIVE OF BJD SHOWS ITS UGLY FACE IN ASSEMBLY

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Orissa Assembly lost almost its entire day again on November 19 as anti-farmer motive of the ruling Biju Janata Dal obviously disallowed its legislative wing to support the Opposition demand for obituary mention in respect of farmers of Orissa that are extinguished through suicidal termination of life in the battle against adversity in agriculture.

Farmers’ suicide in Orissa is precipitated by the adverse agro-environment that the State has been subjected to due to Chief Minister Navin Patnaik’s blind ally with industry.

The party of his sycophants has bared its ugly face even in the Assembly as under its leadership the House of Representatives of the people of Orissa, when at least 80 percent of them are small and marginal farmers, has refused to stand up in respect for the brave ones who preferred to end life than staying away from producing food for fellow beings through farming.

Orissa Assembly will forfeit its relevance if it does not endeavor to honor the sufferers whose contributions to food productivity the administration has failed to recognize.

ABRUPT END OF THE FIRST DAY OF WINTER SESSION OF OLA: A FEW POINTS TO PONDER

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

It is normal that a session of a State Assembly begins on a day and the day ends.

But not always the day ends abruptly. The first day of the winter session of the Orissa Legislative Assembly ended abruptly on November 18. The scheduled list of business for the day got discarded.

As the day began, Leader of the House, Chief Minister Navin Patnaik was called upon by the Speaker for obituary mention in respect of persons in the list before him. The list, officially prepared comprised politicians and uniformed persons passed away since the last session. The Leader of Opposition and other leaders from the Opposition benches joined the CM in paying the obituary tributes. But the problem started with Opposition Leader harping on Demand of his party Chief Whip for obituary mention of farmers that have committed suicide in Orissa at par with persons in uniforms. The Speaker called off rest of the business and the day prematurely ended.

Sans slightest disrespect to the decision of the Speaker, the abrupt end of the day makes one look at the business of obituary in a legislative forum.

Members of the Assembly that legally include a Governor deserve obituary tributes from the House. Even a person for whom the country officially mourns should deserve it. But obituary mention in a legislative body for extra-constitutional persons like the uniformed people is something that does not go with the dignity of the rampart of democracy.

People in uniform are paid for their service from the State Exchequer like every public servant for discharge of his / her respective duty. And, duty included death in duty. So, obituary mention of uniformed persons in the Assembly over their death is not necessary. The persons who die in uniform should be given due posthumous honor in their respective organizations. But any such attempt in the Assembly would lead only to anarchy, a glimpse of which in the initial stage was available to see in abrupt closure of the starting day of the current session of OLA, yesterday when the Opposition demanded obituary mention for the dead farmers.

It is sad that the incumbent Orissa Government has failed to understand that death does not discriminate between uniform and plain clothe. Uniform or no uniform, death hits when one fails to defeat the challenger. So every death is not glorious.

On the other hand, when death hits, the loss is similar in case of uniformed and non-uniformed persons. The loss should not be hit by official discrimination.

Official tributes to persons whose lives end in process of making their respective contributions to the motherland are welcome. If, howsoever wrongfully, the Government makes the Assembly pay tributes to persons died beyond the ambit of its membership, in recognition of their contributions to the country, how could it discriminate between the persons whose contributions the country enjoys?

It should not make discrimination. But Orissa Government has made it by refusing to pay tributes to farmers in the Assembly at par with its tributes to persons in uniforms.

If the military or police personnel, (to expressional advantage, soldiers) died in course of making their contributions to the country, the farmers of Orissa too died in similar course.
The former died in fighting against human challengers and the latter in fighting against the exploitive system. Call them homicidal or suicidal, death is death and they died in action.

The Government is wrong in interpreting that farmers could not be equated with soldiers as the farmers work for their own income but soldiers work for defense of the country. Wrong. Soldiers work for their salaried income and stop the salary, there would be no soldier. And, their salary is assured by the State. Farmers work for their income which is never assured. Hence they are more disadvantaged. But this is not proper to read the matter this way. Both the farmers and soldiers work for their respective income; but by the works of both of them, country is saved from danger in the border, in law and order as well as in the food sector.

Therefore, when the country was challenged by Pakistan, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastrijee had coined the slogan, “Jai Jawan, Jai Kissan” (Glory both to the soldiers and the farmers of India). And, the country had won.

It is therefore right on part of the Opposition to have stressed on deletion of discrimination between Jawans and Kissans of Orissa in the matter of obituary reference in the Assembly. It is wrong on part of the government to have not agreed to this demand.

Thus saying, I would certainly say, obituary mentions in respect of anybody beyond the ambit of its membership and protocol should be banned permanently on grounds discussed supra.

Would the Speaker favor a ruling?

POLTERGEISTS TRY TO ENTRAP JOURNALISTS ON PRESS DAY IN ORISSA, BUT FAIL

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

I got an invitation to attend National Press Day at IDCOL auditorium on 16th November at 5.30 PM “positively” to “receive The Janata Personal Accident Insurance for three years from the chief guest”.

The ruling party’s super-supremo Pyari Mohan Mohapatra was projected as the chief guest in the invitation card.

It was covered by a letter signed by three of Orissa’s known journalists under the letter head of an organization with a registered number, styled as National Journalist Welfare Board.

To my horror I found in the invitation card a list of 13 persons including four Ministers, two MPs and one MLA belonging to the ruling party and the rest comprising three officers of the National Government, one of an insurance company and two henchmen were to address the audience as Chief Guest, Chief Speaker, Guests of Honour, and Speakers. But surprisingly there was none from the Press to speak on this occasion. I decided to ignore the invitation.
Press Repressed
Press is being repressed as never before in Orissa. Rural reporters not showing inclination not to report starvation deaths, not to report baby-selling by helpless mothers, not to report stone eating by hungry landless tribes, not to report wretchedness of the displaced, not to report swindling away of welfare funds by the nexuses of officials and contractors, not to report hijacking of essential commodities from public distribution system into the black-market by traders, not to report clandestine trade of narcotics by police personnel of their localities, are being framed up in cooked up cases under severe charges such as sedition, a recent instance of which is the case clamped on Sambad reporter Laxman Choudhury and / or being brutally beaten up by ruling party goons, as has recently happened to Samaj reporter Jagannth Basita.
Official apathy
More tormenting than this is the cold apathy the State Government has deliberately shown in responding to appeals from the fourth estate to save Freedom of Press from such ongoing brutalization.
Shocking
It is shocking therefore that a few of the community of journalists in Orissa have tried to play tricks on the fraternity by clever offer of “accident insurance” through a pack of Orissa Ministers on the National Press Day, designed to divert attention form the plight of journalists in the hands of administration to their imagined disadvantage due to absence of insurance coverage.
Dubious
These fellows have floated an organization styled as “National Journalists Welfare Board”, which has no national authenticity,entity or accountability.

Its name is willfully contrived to show it as an authentic national organization. And, it is shown to be “in association with” the National Government’s media organizations like Press Information Bureau, Directorate of field Publicity, All India Radio and Doordarshan.

Has the National Government floated it? No.

Has the National Government adopted it? No.

Has the National Government accorded it any affiliation? No.

But local officials of the above noted wings of the National Government have, behind back of the National Government, allowed it to be seen as authentic by allowing the public to note that they are “in association with” this body.
Design
This dubious set-up, has, on the National Press Day, tried to corrupt the scribes’ community by entrapping them into the official design of “accident insurance”, with the idea that their real disadvantage lies not in prosecution by administration, but in loss of life or limbs in organized attacks or in action that could be termed as accidents normal in the profession!
Heartening
But it is heartening to note that majority of journalists have refused the offer, even though they were present in the auditorium to watch the event. Only 13 out of a hundred of State level accredited journalists offered the insurance accepted the policies when 87 of them refused to come to the podium.

Is RTI Affecting Press Freedom? Loud Thinks SCP on National Press Day

By OrissaMatters Bureau

National Press Day was officially observed in the auditorium of the Department of Information and Public Relations in the evening of November 16, with Minister of I&PR, Mr. Prafulla Samal in the chair.

Dr. Surya Narayan Mishra, Professor of Political Science, Utkal University, expressed deep dismay over failure of democracy to stay as the stable source of development of peoples and decline of space in mainstream media for the commons in various countries including India.

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak and Ramesh Chandra Mohanty from the Fourth Estate expressed concern over attack on Press under applied democracy as is seen in Orissa in recent days with the Chief Minister dillydallying in taking action against police functionaries that have unambiguously cooked up false cases against reporters even as Sri Pattanayak gave a loud thinking to how shrewdly democracy is replaced with plutocracy by agents thereof in partnership with the owners of media, who attired as editors or assisted by yes-men donned as editors, take advantage of freedom of press and vet and steer information delivery process cleverly against the progressive forces, lest the hidden face of plutocracy comes out to public gaze. The situation in India is so anarchical that in the guise of freedom of information a law like the Right to Information Act has been promulgated that appears pro-people outwardly but inwardly is an instrument to do away with the conscience-keeper role of the working journalists to whom, by way of accreditation, democracy had originally equipped with the discretion to use professional wisdom in choosing what should be reportable in interest of the public. With the RTI, relevance of Press Accreditation is impaired and administration is being dragged into marketplace, which certainly is designed to develop informational anarchy. To sabotage democracy in the guise of democracy is the game that plutocracy plays and RTI as is being officially patronized needs to be reviewed in this light, said Pattanayak.

Dwelling on the precarious condition of journalists in Orissa, Pattanayak pointed out that the incumbent Information Minister, knows that his attempts to bring out a list of journalists working in Orissa is not being possible due to non-supply of acquaintance role by media organizations. But under the Press Council Act, it is the Information Department, which should have been in possession of details of the State’s journalist from the data of income and expenditure of every media house if the annual levy for the Council could have collected by the Government. It is not being done as the Government is not with the people, but with the traders that own the media organizations, he pointed out.

Prof. Biswaranjan, who after retiring from teaching Political Science in Orissa’s top ranking Government Colleges, has been working as the Editor of the daily Khabar since its inception, as the chief speaker of the evening, dwelt on the new face of media, which, to him, has evolved at par with applied democracy. Agreeing with SCP about overcast of plutocracy on political horizon of India, he went further to rue that the media having deviated from its avowed stand to stay as the sentinel of democracy, as a corollary thereto democratic process in the country has been hit hard by mobocracy. To save India from the disaster of electoral wisdom being swayed away by mobocracy, Press shall have to retrieve its role of politico-economic educator of the masses, he said. Earlier a small newspaper owner sans any invitation to speak had taken the microphone to assure the Minister in the Chair that the Press would stand with the Government. The idea was so ridiculous of the occasion that Prof. Biswaranjan, even though the paper he heads as editor is viewed as the mouthpiece of the Government because of super-chief-minister Pyarimohan Mohapatra’s shadow ownership, dismissed the idea and said, if Press would be pledged to Government there would be no Press at all.

Mr. Samal in his Presidential address assured to ensure that Press freedom is not tampered with through any official intervention. Identification of journalists active in Orissa, irrespective of where they work and with who, would soon be published in the official website and all the accredited journalists would be officially covered under insurance with provision of pension to all of them on crossing 60 in age, he declared. Departmental secretary R.N.Dash reiterated official commitment to Freedom of Press.

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 →