Orissa Matters

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Our demand was for governance of Orissa in Oriya. The State Government had agreed and had created a ‘Ministerial Committee’ to work out details of how to make it a reality in practice.

When the details were formulated by me and placed in a dedicated website specifically created to monitor governance of Orissa in Oriya, in a surprise and baffling move, the Chief Minister has declared that the Act would work through Official circulars, Advertisements and Name-plates, which he attributes to ‘Ministerial Committee’ held today the 17th December in the Secretariat, when no such meeting is held. The ‘Ministerial Committee’ is creation of a ‘Code’ comprising a group of Ministers and ‘nominated individuals’ including me. Neither I nor any ‘nominated member’ knows of the meeting.

Under the circumstances, the Press Note issued by the CMO makes it clear that the Chief Minister has drifted away from the decision for necessary legislation to remove the obstacles from the path of governance of Orissa in Oriya.

The official caption given to the Press Note is clear enough to suggest that the CM is not for governance of Orissa in Oriya. To his perception, issuance of official circulars, official advertisements and writing of name-plates constitute the whole gamut of governance!

But to us, amendment of Orissa Official Language Act, 1954 to proceed for formation of Rules that must include, as proposed by me in the Ministerial Committee, a provision for punishment to whosoever contravenes the said Act, is essential.

It is intriguing that the Chief Minister, having told the Assembly that the amendment of the Act is on the anvil, has not uttered a single word on that in this Press Note. Is he drifting away? We shall have to keep a close watch.

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Our struggle for governance of Orissa in Oriya is fetching success step by step despite a ruling party MP trying to misguide the people.

In reply to a question, i.e. UDAQ No. 2325 from Member Nabakishore Das, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has told the Assembly on 14th December that the government is now finalizing the Rules to make it a must for the authorities to use Oriya as the Official Language.

The Chief Minister has almost admitted that notwithstanding enactment and instant enforcement of Orissa Official Language Act in 1954, which had stipulated that “Oriya shall be the language to be used for all or any of the official purposes of the State of Orissa”, the administration is not running in Oriya.

We had, in our meetings with the ministers, submitted various departmental circulars that had directed the departmental officers to work in Oriya language. These circulars were not traceable in headquarters. We had collected them – credit goes certainly to Joint Convener of Odia Bhasa Sangram Samiti Dr. Subrat Kumar Prusty – from the guard files of field offices at great pain and given copies thereof to the government to show how the Act was not functioning. In his reply referred to above, the Chief Minister has cited those circulars. Despite such circulars, the officers are not using Oriya language for official purpose.

In course of my investigation I stumbled upon the order of Chief Minister J. B. Patnaik, as he then was, directing all offices to use Oriya as the language of administration. This was a mandatory order from the Chief Minister of the constitutional government.

It is surprising that despite such clear orders from the Chief Minister himself, officers did not care to use Oriya.

In the regime of the present Chief Minister, various orders have also been issued for administration in Oriya; such as GA Department letter No.10552 of 17/4/2013. Another instance is letter No. 16086 of 12/6/2013 of the same department that controls all other departments. Yet, the officers did not use Oriya as official language.
What could be the reasons of this?

On research I found, there were no Rules to drive the Act ahead. The contraveners of the Act should have been subjected to disciplinary action; but there was no provision to administer discipline, including necessary prosecution for offense against the State. I found the Act itself had no provision for framing of the Rules. The Officers knew this lacuna and knew that they should be enjoying immunity under the shade of the deficient Act even if they continue to contravene it.

To eradicate this lacuna, I submitted the draft of proposed amendment to the Act of 1954 along with a draft of the proposed Rules to the Chairman of Official Language Advisory Committee Hon’ble Minister Sri Debi Prasad Mishra. Behind this was the collective wisdom and support of the entire leadership of the Odia Bhasa Sangram Samiti led by eminent poet Shankarshan Parida and fortunately for the State of Orissa, the Chairman and members of the ministerial committee formed by the Chief Minister wholeheartedly appreciated the initiative. The same has officially been posted in the dedicated website for public suggestions if any.

We are most happy to note that the Chief Minister has approved the website titled ODIARE SHASANA entirely dedicated to our demand for governance of Orissa in Oriya. On his behalf, Minister Debi Prasad Mishra who heads the Official Language Advisory Committee (formerly the Joint Action Committee) has launched this site in the presence of all the Ministers and representatives of the Odia Bhasa Sangram Samiti, that constitute the Committee and author of the proposed Language Policy Dr. Debi Prasanna Pattanayak.

We congratulate the Chief Minister for having informed the House as noted supra that the Rules are currently under active consideration of the Government for adoption.

Once the Act is amended and Rules adopted, no Officer, whatsoever be his / her rank and status, would dare to play mischief with our people’s right to get governance of our State in our mother tongue Oriya.

We put below the Assembly document carrying the question and the CM’s answer as a matter of documentation.

As we had observed on watching Gopalpur after the catastrophic storm Phailin, the Gopalpur has resurrected itself as a top navigable port in India’s east coast receiving and handling cargo vessels in quick succession.

After the vessel ‘Grace’ made December 12 the day of commencement of its new phase of operation, vessel M. V. STENTOR has arrived on Dec.15.

The only Port in Orissa’s vast coast owned by an Oriya, the Gopalpur Port is most promising in view of its dedicated staff that pride in their association with the management known and admired in whole of Orissa as paragon and practitioners of the most perfect and fair labor practices; and further because of its suitable location and excellent connection both on roadways and railways.

Saswat Pattanayak

Arvind Kejriwal suddenly discovers in Modi a coward and psychopath, simply because he finally becomes a victim of fascist vendetta now. However, this outrage is a social media melodrama as it was Kejriwal himself who has contributed the most in the resulting chaos that prevail today. Modi/Shah and their BJP goons are professionally committed as communal politicians and xenophobes who have always practiced hate politics to perfection. Indian public had always rejected such right-wing fanatics throughout the country’s democratic history. It is Kejriwal who lent them a humane face through his creation of a hoopla over the corruption bogeyman, only with the sole aim to destabilize what he and his right-wing allies Shanti Bhushan, Kiran Bedi and Kumar Vishwas felt as “dynasty politics”.

Bhushan who funded the creation of AAP was also the same man who was one of the founders of BJP in 1980 – the only aim at that time was to oppose Indira Gandhi because she had dared to “misuse her power” by ensuring that India aims to become a “socialist” and “secular” country. When BJP failed to gain any momentum in India owing to their rabidly communal agendas, these reactionaries floated an outfit by the name of AAP to espouse the same anti-Congress politics, but on a more populist political plank: Corruption.

Prior to advancing the carefully orchestrated political party AAP, Kejriwal was at the forefront of the anti-socialist formation called “India Against Corruption” and an anti-secular formation called “Youth for Equality” – the sole aim of these so-called apolitical movements (ably supported by the likes of objective corporate media comprising Arnav Goswami/Rajat Sharma) was to excite the otherwise indifferent middle class students into getting wet dreams over the potential demise of Congress and the Left in India; to materialize the RSS reveries of a Congress-Mukt Bharat into reality.

Aam Aadmi Party – many of whose stalwarts subsequently have gone back to their BJP family – thereafter emerged as the New Right in India, the first outfit to succeed in legitimizing capitalistic meritocracy as an acceptable political proposition in a society whose collective progress depends on reservation policies, to allow for a political scope for rabidly communal elements of this society to gain a respectable electoral mandate that was virtually impossible to obtain prior to Kejriwal and his team arrived as the educated “we-are-not-political-we-are-you” actors, and to create for the first time in India’s history a Parliament without an empowered Opposition.
It is not Modi, but Kejriwal who created an imagination for a new India whose socio-economic policies could be drafted without the Congress and the Left. And when Kejriwal is not given that rightful due, and instead is treated like he were an outsider, it is only natural that he calls his former bosses names. But even then, Modi continues to heave a sigh of relief, because Kejriwal once again is letting him to be used as a tool to diminish the current debate just when Rahul Gandhi cries vendetta. Because educated Indian bourgeois class and its aspirants know quite well, that when vendetta too appears meritocratic, it is no longer to be treated as a misuse of power.

Justice Arijit Pasayat’s assertion that terrorists have no entitlement to human rights is condemned by human-right-activists.

Golak Bihari Nath of Gatantrik Adhikar Surakha Sangathan and Pramodini Pradhan of People’s Union for Civil Liberties in a Press realease on 14th December have questioned the motive of the former judge of the Supreme Court of India.

We publish here the contents of the Press Release with the hope that Justice Pasayat would explain his position, as his reported remark has serious ramifications.

Here is what the two have said:

The former Supreme Court Judge Justice Arijit Pashayat’s statement that terrorists and notorious criminals should not be given any human rights consideration, as reported in various newspapers, is unacceptable.

It is shocking when a former judge of the Supreme Court carries such an attitude.

His comments are in disagreement with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to which India is a signatory. The Declaration clearly states that “Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence” (Article-11).

Right to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial judiciary is also guaranteed by the Constitution of India.

In view of this, the comment of Justice Pasayat that ‘the terrorists and notorious criminals are not entitled to any human rights consideration’ is completely against the accepted values and principles of Indian Constitution as well as the United Nations’ Charter of Human Rights.

What is worrying is when a person with such prejudice about ‘terrorists’ and ‘criminals ’occupied a position in the highest judiciary of the country, what kind of justice would have been delivered to people presumed as ‘terrorists’ and ‘criminals ’by that person.

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 →

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.

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 →