The ugly and disrespectful conduct of the authorities in removing the statute of Utkalmani Pandit Gopabandhu Das hitherto on the Puri Badadanda smacked of scant respect and regard for a person of his stature and background. Assuming that the shifting the statue was occasioned by any rational public necessity, a proper and suitable place, where it would be located, should have been decided upon through a collective wisdom. The infrastructure for facilitating relocation of the statute should have been first completed. The crudity and casualness with which the destruction took place without there being any respectable arrangement had the stench of a colonial mindset.
Biju Patnaik was the moving force behind the Gopabandhu Session of the Indian National Congress in Bhubaneswar and it was his initiative (along with the other leaders at that time) that led to a postage stamp of Gopabandhu being released on the date Gopabandhu Nagar of Bhubaneswar was inaugurated. This was the first postage stamp on any one from Odisha. Just a few days before the death anniversary of Gopabandhu, disfiguring his statue through the cruel crane power of the mighty State has disturbed the sensibility of a large section of the public. This was an avoidable display of the anachronistic power of “eminent domain”. History and heritage were buried in the debris of a pushed-around Gopabandhu. Apart from being ungrateful, we have demonstrated that we are now tending to lack self-respect and should not have any pretentions about our history, tradition and culture. We have disfigured our own image and have tried to vulgarly rewrite our own past glories.
n “Atithi debo bhavah” cries out the advertisement of the Odisha Tourism Development Corporation. As a people, we are known for our hospitality, and we are also courteous and cultured. There was a storm in the tea cup the other day. When a Minister of the Odisha Government was upset with his name or photo, whatever it may be, not appearing in an advertisement released in the newspaper in the context of the inauguration of the Bhubaneswar-Puri National Highway. He found fault with the authorities who had issued the advertisement and was candid enough to caution the Central Cabinet Minister that in future this could cost him dear. It is quite likely that Nitin Gadkari may have ignored the event for overarching political consideration. But the electronic media enabled viewers across countries to watch the details of the unusual event. language is a wonderful vehicle, but it needs to be kept clean and polished. Behaviour at times is an indicator on many inner qualities. In any case, Gadkari must have at least understood that there are tough talking persons in the higher echelon of the Odisha administration who do not mince their words.
n While we cope with refinements of communication and expression, further disturbing news emanates from the district of Jagatsinghpur.
Too much publicity and impressive statistics very often do not reveal the distortions and aberrations in the socioeconomic fabric and structure. We have recently had the fiasco of the potato production. The State ran short of potato and some crisis management was undertaken. Curiously, within a few months, farmers were selling potato under distress. Painting glossy pictures without having one’s home in order can be a risky affair. I do not think the policymakers or the administrators or we are at large can forgive ourselves, when there is distress sale of milk and at a price lower than a bottle of water. Jagatsinghpur district produces a large quantum of milk, one of the highest in Eastern India. The transaction in milk has been in the rank of two lakh litres per day in this district. The agencies like the Omfed or even private entities operating in the field did not come to the rescue of the farmers. Reliable reports say that about 30,000 to 40,000 litres of milk is subjected to distress sale in this district. The milk societies put a cap on the quantum of milk that they shall collect, and that in turn is linked with the intake capacity of the chilling plants. What a travesty it is that distress sale of milk takes place in the poverty-stricken state of Odisha, that too at a price cheaper than a litre of bottled water. We are our own enemies. We are daydreaming that industry alone can change our fate. The neglect of the agrarian sector is a crime against our society, especially when we are plagued with undernourishment and there is no equitable distribution of nutrition.
n let us move from an essential thing like milk to uninteresting things like solid waste. The fanfare about Nabakalebar has been going on for quite some time. The media has already exposed the weaknesses in road and other infrastructure, though they have all been inaugurated with a political flavour. Authorities have estimated that during the Rath Yatra generation of municipal solid waste would touch the figure of about 12,000 tonnes as against about 76 tonnes in the recent past in Puri. The city has, as per reports, only 60 to 70 bins for disposal of waste. Ordinarily, Puri is not a clean town. The additional burden of solid waste will make things worse. There is hardly any time left to ensure adequate remedial steps. ‘Nabakalebar’ would not change the “Kalebar” of Puri town for the better. Religion and faith are not meant to increase the amount of filth around us.
n Still further disturbing information emanates from Kendrapada, where dead persons have allegedly come alive to work in labour-intensive public employment projects in some of our coastal districts. Such nonexistent persons have also drawn their wages through banks. Plunder with no hesitation seems to be the motto. Conveniently, the richer sections of the society are further enriched by robbing the poor. Unless we are in a suicidal mode, we would not tolerate such a state of affair. Where is the “Patitapaban” or “Daridranarayan” god of oursIJ Even the deities at Puri are probably suffering so much in “Anasara” that their might is reduced or misdirected. It is time we woke up to the rot in our midst before our social fabric is incurably infected by the plunderers of public property and our scarce resources. Things have gone beyond the tolerance threshold. There are reasons more than one for all these to vitally concern all of us.
(The writer, a Senior Advocate, is a former All India Service officer, a former diplomat, a former editor, a former President of Orissa High Court Bar Association and a former Advocate General of Odisha. yantdas@hotmail.com)