The idea of a separate Kosal State was the brainchild of Ram Prasad Mishra, the then Finance Minister of Odisha and a close associate of Chief Minister late Rajendra Narayan Singh Deo. According to his plan, the hilly tracts of Mayurbhanj to Koraput including Keonjhar, Sundargarh, Sambalpur, Balangir and Kalahandi were to be carved out from Odisha.
As a beginning Singh Deo, the then Patna Maharaja, established Kosal Kalamandal and that is how the ancient Kosal ‘Mahajanapad’ served as revival of memory among the people of western Odisha. Historians suspect that a plan was hatched between these two politicians of the old Ganatantra Parishad to blackmail the coastal politicians. This blackmailing tactics of the duo was successful at a later stage when Singh Deo became Chief Minister. He not only shunned the idea of forming a separate State but commented before a delegation of western Odisha which met him in Bhubaneswar that he is the Chief Minister of Odisha, not of western Odisha. That was the love for his homeland, and no wonder if Ananga Udaya, Kalikesh or for that matter BJP’s Kanak Vardhan do profess an identical view on Kosal or its movement. Then, there was a stunning silence on this issue for over three decades till Balgopal Mishra came on to the scene and raised the issue of bifurcating Odisha in the portal of Odisha Assembly.
Mishra’s action evoked tremendous response among the Kosalites, so much so that lakhs of people prayed for his wellbeing when he was seriously ill. He would have become a messiah had he maintained a balance in his words and action. However, the blinking lamp, which was almost getting wiped off, rekindled with a new ray of hope. He wished to take forward the cause but then failed to carry the people along this movement. When he was an MlA, he is believed to have said after meeting Chief Minister Naveen Pattnaik in these words, “Even I would not speak about Kosal if offered the post of a Minister.”
The legacy was carried forward by a smart lawyer from Sambalpur, Premram Dubey. His ‘Ekla Chalore’ philosophy landed him nowhere. He formed a Kosal Party which never got its election symbol from the commission. The baton was snatched from him by Pramod Mishra, a young advocate of Balangir. Initially, he got associated with Balgopal Mishra and conceived the idea of rolling down a Rath (chariot) in the name of Kosal not as much as to create awareness but to map the psychology of western Odisha on the separate State issue. The leadership of Balgopal Mishra was never accepted by Pramod, and misunderstanding started brewing. later, a Kosal Raej Kriyanusthan Committee was formed which was dominated by leaders from Sambalpur. The Balangir meen did not like it and revolted. He continued to condemn Balgopal to the extent of reducing him to the State of a village tout.
Premram Dubey and Balgopal Mishra might have failed in their political attempts, but the Kosal consciousness still remained in the hearts of the western Odisha region. Pramod Mishra wanted to cash in on the emotion, but sooner than later he was confronted with the reality that emotion and electoral politics are not Siamese twins. He failed in his attempt to hold the line of electoral politics and got fed off with the Kosal Kranti Dal (KKD) which he once formed with the advice of one of his trusted colleagues. He used to claim the KKD as the only political alternative for liberation of western Odisha. Now, he has a different theory. He wants to promote a nonpolitical organisation called Kosal State Coordination Committee with a belief that people from all political hues including a large number of tribals will jump into the fray under the canopy he has spread to continue his supremacy as the undisputed leader of the Kosal movement.
Realisation has not yet dawned that he carries a personality all along which will be accepted neither by Balangir, his homeland nor outside. Thus, the movement which is considered ill-fated till now, is languishing under a leadership crisis without vision and a roadmap for future.
(The writer is a journalist and working president, Kosal Kranti Dal. M-9437083025)