Orissa Matters

Anarchy rejuvenated with Pandian appointed in Cabinet rank

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has rejuvenated anarchy in Orissa by appointing his Rasputin VK Pandian in a Cabinet rank, after he was relieved from Government service over serious exposure of his official misconduct.

On the 20th instant , Naveen had to send to the Central Government the IAS officer’s application for voluntary retirement with a design to help him escape disciplinary action, which, sans any query was sanctioned on the 23rd. Orissa Government, immediately after receiving the Central Government communication allowing the retirement, relieved him from service, exonerating him thereby from the accusations that could have led to severe punishment.

BJP M.P. Aparajita Sarangi had exposed Pandian’s misdeeds and had wanted disciplinary action against him, as Rule 5 of the All India Services Conduct Rules (AISCR), prohibits the members of the Service from being associated with any political party or any organization which takes part in politics. When no All India Service member is allowed to take part in, or subscribe in aid of, or assist in any other manner, any political movement or political activity, Rule 12 thereof also stipulates that , “No member of the Service shall receive any complimentary or valedictory address or accept any testimonial or attend any meeting or entertainment held in his honour.” Pandian was marked to have blatantly contravened these provisions of AISCR. Hence, she had invited action-oriented attention of the central government to Pandian’s misconduct. Co-signatory to the complaint was her party leader Manmohan Samal. The accusations being fact-based and serious, and Pandian being an Officer of Orissa cadre, the Central Government asked the Chief Secretary of Orissa “for action as appropriate” (File No. 104/37/2023-IA(Pt.3) dated the 26th June 2023), The complaint and the evidences loaded in the accompanying CD and Pen Drive, were too factual to be countered by Pandian. Orissa has presently a strong officer in the incumbent Chief Secretary, who knows how the Chief of the Executive Government is to work in such a situation. So the situation was worrisome for Pandian.

Guilty of the same offences Pandian was alleged to have committed, Naveen Patnaik came to his rescue in his own interest.

A plan was contrived, which has resulted in his retirement sans any punishment, as noted supra.

Thus setting Pandian exonerated of accusations pertaining to his service as his PS -cum- chief executive of the monstrous mischief called 5T, Naveen Patnaik has forthwith appointed him as chairman of another instrument of vandalism called “Naveen Odisha”, which is a mega conspiracy formulated by his non-Oriya Rasputin to help him with sadistic pleasure of bastardising the splendid name of the beloved motherland of the fine race of Oriyas that had thrown his father Biju Patnaik into the political dustbin to die a wretched death, as an abandoned person.

This Rasputin is given a Cabinet Minister rank, which means, he shall be the de facto Minister in charge of bastardisation of Orissa’s unique name.

This is an unambiguous instance of rejuvenation of anarchy in Orissa by the chief minister of the State.

Avarice of Soumya Ranjan Patnaik created the pandemic called Pandian

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak
Orissa is severely afflicted with a pandemic politico-administrative disease called Pandian. Under this disease cabinet ministers of Orissa have lost their sovereign vigour and the ruling party MLAs and MPs have allowed themselves to bear with the ignominy of women folks including their own dancing on the streets in offering welcome to Pandian wherever he goes!

Pusillanimity has such overwhelming effect that, the chief of the executive government of Orissa – the Chief Secretary – takes, de facto, orders from Pandian and the entire administrative machinery throughout the State dances to his tune. The Chief Minister acts like fantoccini in his hands and reads out his review observation from tiny pieces of paper suspectedly given to him by Pandian, without reviewing any proceed of administration in review meetings he statutorily takes up.

The State exchequer is denuded of hundreds of crores of rupees to defray the cost of his air-tours as the head of an illegal and unanswerable outfit styled 5T. There is no trace of this all-powerful outfit in the Orissa Government Rules of Business created and promulgated by the State Governor under Art.166 of the Constitution of India. But this outfit is called a department with Pandian as its Secretary. Thus, this outfit is entirely unconstitutional and blatantly illegal. Yet, many thousand crore of rupees are allegedly squandered away in the so-called 5T projects designed to give a cover to loot of the State exchequer, the way Pandian prefers.

It is Pandian, a mere employee of the State, who enjoys the rarest of rare privileges of being greeted with flying kisses from chief minister Naveen Patnaik even on the podiums of public meetings. If there is any abnormal angle in such shameless flying kisses, even the Opposition has never demanded for a study on it. The Chief Minister’s passive partnership in his power-bed has so overwhelmingly affected the psyche of the BJD rank and file. that, Debi Prasad Mishra, former Minister and senior leader of the ruling party has shown no hesitation in addressing Pandian as the Chief Minister of Orissa, in a public meeting in his own constituency, even when Naveen Patnaik is to seek fresh mandate as the Chief Minister.

Clearly, Pandian, a mere salaried servant of the people, is now the most powerful boss of the State.

Orissa has succumbed to the design he devised in 2016. He gained over Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, chief of the major media organisation namely the Eastern Media Ltd. and used him to be planted in the mind of the people of Orissa as the most powerful person in the government. Huge money was involved. Soumya Ranjan Patnaik got his palms fabulously greased by Pandian and used his Kanak Tv to project him as the most powerful person in the ruling setup in Orissa, next only to the Chief Minister. In Soumya’s Sun Times, it was even disclosed that Pandian also manages the BJD, calculatedly tailored to convey the BJD rank and file to accept Pandian as their 2nd boss. The entire design was styled “Odisha Power List 2016”. Thereafter, every member of BJD as well as bureaucracy started competing with each other in expressing loyalty to Pandian.

This was a deliberate design of Pandian executed by the avaricious owner of the media organization. Neither the Eastern Media nor the Kanak Tv had attempted to create an “Odisha Power List” earlier to 2016 to show that it has a history of creating such a list. It has never bothered to create such a “list” after 2016 also. Hence it is clear that “Odisha Power List 2016” had the single purpose of projecting Pandian as the 2nd highest boss of the power circle that rules over Orissa.

In the nefarious footprint of Naveen

This nefarious design was devised exactly as the them media major ETv was used by Naveen Patnaik to bag an unprecedented tag “Priya Odia” in 2006 when his credibility as the Chief Minister had declined to the lowest level and founding members of BJD had started revolting against him. To my sources, ETv was paid a hundred crore of rupees to cultivate the Priya (most popular) Odia title for him when he had become utmost Apriya (most unpopular) in reality. In the drama ETv had enacted, Naveen was pitted against a four-year old boy namely Buddhia Singh, living in a Bhubaneswar slum with his mother, in the final round of a stage-managed election through mobile phone, when uneducated slumdweller kid, who had never used a mobile phone in life, had no knowledge of such a contest against the Chief Minister of the State.

There was a hidden fear in the mind of Naveen Patnaik that if Buddhia Singh anyway gets the idea any day and challenges the so-called “election” in a legal forum, the fraud he had played would be bare before the public. Hence his child welfare minister Pramila Mallik was used to demolish the boy, holding his marathon running as an attempt to commit suicide and was completely ruined by force-placing him in the State-run Sports Hostel with a farcical declaration to train him in the sports hostel to be an Olympian!

Buddhia Singh is no more on the scene, but the “Priya Odia” title Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik bagged by defeating this four-years-old illiterate slum-dwelling boy in a popularity contest through mobile phone, has helped Naveen to stay in power, despite all his marked anti-people activities.

This experimentation of Naveen Patnaik on use of ETv to emerge as the most popular amongst the people of Orissa despite being most unpopular, has been used by Pandian to emerge as the most powerful boss of the ruling BJD by using Soumya Ranjan Patnaik and his Kanak Tv, to such extent that its senior Vice-President Devi Prasad Mishra has already projected him as the Chief Minister, notwithstanding Naveen’s incumbency in the post!

The way Orissa has been rushing into ruins since the day Pandian was projected in the so-called Odisha Power List 2016 as the de facto boss of BJD, it would be very difficult for any conscious Oriya to pardon Soumya Ranjan Patnaik for having promoted this pandemic that is eating away every iota of political mana of the people of Orissa.

Journalism in Jolt // CM blackmails Soumyaranjan into silence

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

I was shocked to see how Orissa’s media almost utterly outcasted Sri Soumyaranjan Patnaik, Editor of Sambad, in the slugfest between him and the Chief Minister, when political environment is agog with approaching footfall of election-2024. Journalism jolted in Orissa.

Soumyaranjan had fallen in the political honeytrap of Naveen Patnaik and under his instruction, had wanted me to dissolve the Bhasha Andolan, with weakening words that the CM was ready to amend the Orissa Official Language Act, 1954 as per my proposal in the Ministerial Committee. The CM’s treachery in its amendment in 2016 entirely in mind, I refused to dissolve the campaign before proper amendment of the Act. He had threatened me with total blackout of Bhasha Andolan in his media if I reject his request. And, that had happened, even though he was till then the strongest supporter of Bhasha Andolan.

I was really shocked.

But the irony is so dramatic that the same Soumyaranjan has been forced under circumstances created by the same Naveen Patnaik to abdicate his position in the same Sambad when the Campaign is continuing nonstop despite subterfuge resorted to by my close colleagues gained over by the Chief Minister.

His desire to dazzle in politics had derailed Soumyaranjan, as happens normally to power seekers. But his conscience must have hit him hard, as otherwise, he might not have done anything to get dismissed from the party, to join which he had so surprisingly sabotaged the Bhasha Andolan.

I recall his speech, a portion of which Advocate Prakash Chandra Mohanty had posted in Facebook on August 10, 2021 for reference:

His criticism to malfunctioning of administration did not end with the above speech. We find him frequently pointing out the lapses in administration. In fact, he was doing, what he was supposed to do as a leader of the people.

The Chief Minister knows that by criticising the malfunctioning of administration, no member of the ruling party commits any offence. Party whip doesn’t apply beyond voting in the Assembly. Therefore, he was using his colleagues, like former minister Arun Sahoo, ministers Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak and Pramod Dev to instigate Soumyaranjan to resign from the Party if he was dissatisfied with the functioning of administration run by the Party’s government.

Over and above his speeches in public forums as a leader, he also pointed out in his editorial column in Sambad the severe lapses of administration. The Chief Minister kept mum over that, as the allegations Soumya raised in Sambad were too factual to be contradicted.

Soumya had two platforms. (1) Political platform, i.e. the BJD and (2) Media platform, i.e. Kanak Mews apart, the Sambad. In both these platforms he was free to castigate the administration for malfunctioning. Law was in his support.

The Chief Minister, therefore, cooked up a conspiracy to oust him from both these platforms. It was a very heinous, yet a quite brilliant conspiracy.

He used Sambad as the vehicle for dismissing Soumya from the BJD, inter alia putting the paper in a menacing muzzle.

All of a sudden, official ads were off-the-records denied to Sambad. A section of former employees of the newspaper, currently serving rival media outfits, was organised to raise nonexistence allegations against Soumyaranjan Patnaik, which were surprisingly entertained by the Crime Branch of Orissa Police as valid instances of economic offence leading to atrocious raids on his media house premises by its economic offence wing (EOW). If the allegations should have been entertained by the Government, it could have first verified if the same legally exist and if under any imagined yardstick it would have appeared existing, then action under the labour laws for unfair labour practices could have been taken. No court under the sky of India would ever treat unfair labour practices as economic offences, that too, in absence of any bellyache for many decades.

While dismissing him from the Party, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who also is the Lord of his party that runs in his father’s name, has linked Soumya’s dismissal not to his speech or editorial against malfunctioning of the Government, but to dishonesty as the EOW has found him prima facie guilty of economic offences!

A totally dishonest Naveen Patnaik, who has perpetrated a Cabinet Scam to atrophy the Official Language Act through a fraudulent Bill, dismissing Soumyaranjan from his party on the ground of dishonesty is a murky matter that fellows in opportunistic politics may well enjoy. But for a journalist that addresses his report to the people, the fact of significance is that, Naveenbabu, who is ruling over Orissa since the 5th March, 2000, is also the home minister that controls the Police. In the climate that prevails, if he wants, the crime branch of Police can frame up charges against anybody whose criticism is irrefutable by and unbearable to their Minister, i.e. the Chief Minister. Therefore, when Soumyaranjan has been subjected to investigations for alleged economic offences by the crime branch of Orissa Police, it is assumed that the CM wanted him to be thus harassed.

As a campaigner for governance of my people in the language of my State, I am least perturbed over what politico-administrative action is taken against Sri Soumyaranjan Patnaik, the man who had sabotaged Bhasha Andolan to get a berth in the Rajya Sabha from Naveen’s party. But, as a journalist, I am certainly perturbed over the actions taken against him for his journalistic activities.

Stoppage of official ads to Sambad and resume of official ads to Sambad covers a span of time that deserves to be noted for the heinous conspiracy designed by the Chief Minister to create situations for Soumyaranjan, whose political speeches also were oral journalistic reports to the general public, to abdicate editorship of the paper, which he founded and made the most read and trustworthy through exemplary dedication to the cause and purpose of journalism.

Democracy is certainly in danger, when a Chief Minister blackmails a newspaper editor into silence, with other media houses keeping mum under unuttered fear.

For anybody who watches how journalism is taken in Orissa, this episode gives a call to be noted.

Pandian issue makes Naveen fidget//He is forced to speak on mysterious woman Shraddha

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Naveen, the arrogant Chief Minister, who has shown how audacious he could be by refusing to end his subterfuge against Oriya language, has been forced by the Opposition to speak on Shraddha, the mysterious woman, who was allegedly seen in his company on his visit to Vatican city, to meet the Pope, which for a Christian means a fabulous fortune.

Had his blatantly capricious and unruly creation of a Subadar in his private secretary VK Pandian not been so scathingly criticised by the very same Soumyaranjan Patnaik, whom he had gained over by luring into his political honeytrap to deflate Bhasha Andolan in the month of May, 2018, Naveen, as is his wont, might have never allowed himself to take cognisance of the Opposition question on Shraddha.

He has told in the Assembly, before it aborted its next seating, that she was his physiotherapist, whom his sister had deputed to him for taking care of his health. The leader of Opposition, Jayanarayan Mishra is not satisfied with the answer, as the CM’s sister is not alive to corroborate his statement.

Most of the watching public is also not satisfied with the CM’s answer. People look him at askance because of his legislative misconduct in amendment of Orissa Official Language Act in 2016 as well as in 2018 and anti-Orissa disposition displayed in illegal land allocation to Jindal and the likes and amidst many instances, arbitrary kidnaping of Prafulla Samantara from his hotel room in Rayagada to help the Vedant Company.

Therefore, the general public would like to know the details about Shraddha. What exactly is her educational qualification and whether or not she is a qualified physiotherapist. Was she procured from a physiotherapy clinic/hospital? When she arrived at Bhubaneswar and when she left? What was the physical ailments of Naveen Patnaik which she tackled through her tricks? What was Naveenbabu’s condition when she took over and what was, when she left? Was it she who advised Naveenbabu to take the flight to Vatican and meet the Pope, even in physically unsound condition? What exact therapy she gave during the trip he dared? What was the money paid to her as her fees, even though, as Naveenbabu has claimed, she is not paid by the State? It must not be forgotten that, as long as Naveenbabu is the Chief Minister, he is not a private citizen. Officials concerned do not say that he was on leave during the period he was under care of Ms. Shraddha. So he was certainly official when he visited the Pope and was availing the services of Shraddha.

This necessitates a complete answer from Naveenbabu. People of Orissa mustn’t be kept in dark about the health of their Chief Minister.

Thus saying, I am proposing my thanks to Sri Soumyaranjan Patnaik and also to Smt. Aparajita Sarangi, but for whose decision to expose the Pandian-centric misrule, Naveen would never have divulged who the unknown woman Sraddha was.

We wish him sound health.

A speaking instance of misrule: The so-called best ruling CM ought to pay attention

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik must come out of his cocoon called V.K.Pandian and pay official attention, if he is able to, to the nonpayment of pension to eminent author, thinker and speaker of Orissa Sri Baishnab Charan Mohanty, who, superannuated a decade ago, has been forced to suffer unfathomable loss to his finance and health , simply because, he had refused to grease the palm of his boss in the mass education department.

To the total disadvantage of the people of Orissa, despite more than two decades in the post of the Chief Minister, Naveen Patnaik is not able to read and write in the State Language. Either he is mentally deficient to learn the language of the State or he has inherent abhorrence for the people’s language, like his father Biju Patnaik had. So, he doesn’t read or write Oriya. His father had boasted in the Assembly of his English Culture (Debate dated 30.9.1963) and had shown the audacity of disowning India as a country because of existence of languages like Oriya (Debate on Orissa Official Language [Amendment] Act, 1985). Biju was so very averse to Orissa’s State Language that he had not made any of his children learn Oriya. Therefore, naturally, Naveen has no respect for the Language of the State where he is enjoying power for more than 23 years. Therefore, he has no respect for eminent Oriya writers and thinkers and speakers. Therefore, instead of writing in Oriya, I am presenting this matter in English, placing the video of how Sri Mohanty has put forth his grievances.

Placed in YouTube, its link is –

Naveen should see video as a mirror to his face and confess that his is a bad government that thrive on propaganda of good governance to the contrary of actuals.

Author of masterpieces of Oriya letters like Bou Biswavidyalaya, Lekhi Najani Akshara Dosa, Pana o Priyatama and around a hundred of the like, Sri Baishna Charan Mohanty is pride of Orissa. Torturing him for bribe to pay him his pension dues and even his own money deposited in GPF cannot be countenanced by the people of Orissa, Naveen ought to know.

As he poses to understand what one utters in Oriya, I hope, he shall allow himself to know, through the video, what has happened to the post retirement dues of Sri Mohanty, eminent Oriya author and retired Assistant Director of Mass Education, whose conduct as a Government officer is outstanding and exemplary.

The so-called transparency through the mischief called 5T can be tested on the matrix of this case.