Dana Majhi has become an overnight global sensation for an extremely innocent act due to ignorance highlighted by a smart TV channel reporter who not only covered the event too glaringly but also made sure the story ran nonstop for days on end to attract world attention. Dana carried his wife Amangei’s dead body for 12 km on shoulders from the Bhawanipatna hospital to his village Shagada in Kalahandi, his teenage daughter in tow. Messages of heartbreaking responses came flooding in. The terrible event became so viral that even Bahrain Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa could not sleep before donating a sizeable amount of money through the Indian Embassy to Dana. Sulabh International dished out nearly seven and a half lakh rupees to Dana. Besides, he has also received numerous dole-outs from many unknown sympathisers across the world. Dana is already rich without knowing the zeroes in the monetary figure.
Amangei died around 1 am on August 24 after being treated for tuberculosis in a ward when no night duty staff was available nearby to help deliver the body formally. Attendants of other patients advised Dana to arrange for a private vehicle to take the body back home. Majhi had no money to hire a vehicle. So, around 5 am, he walked away, the wrapped body on shoulders and with daughter as company. But then, could he have planned to walk all the 60 km without help. A preliminary inquiry reveals he just wanted to get away, hoping for help outside the hospital premises. The tribal couldn’t have been so headless or stupid. That the State facilities are lacking or not in functional shape is an established fact. But that Dana consciously dared set out on a walk marathon is a proposition difficult to believe. Wrong maybe, but a few onlookers whisper that Dana kept walking until dawn became brighter morning and the sight became too disturbing to passers-by. Somehow or the other, news reached media reporters and one particular TV guy probably managed to arrive at the scene fairly early. It also appears the cameraman kept insisting on Dana’s walking along with daughter nonstop for quite some time until the shots were okayed. All this presumptions could be wholly wrong too. But such things are commonplace these days. No one including TV reporters stopped Dana and organised help. The onlookers are to blame if they kept making him walk for media glare. At long last, the reporter called up the District Magistrate for immediate Government assistance. But the straightjacket Government system takes time to go live; so, the local Balaji Trust came by immediately with a private ambulance and rescued the poor family from torture.
The Dana story is likely to inspire many cunning ones to stage such heartrending dramas to make hay while the sun is still shining. The Bahrain Prime Minister or the Sulabh outfit may not respond again. All the same, that the media carried the story on time and, rightly so, has worked wonders as the State service delivery systems have woken up from casual attitude to witness and experience the enormous public wrath and pressure. PM Modi has also sought a report on the matter. But the Bahrain PM has outshone the local TV reporter, as we get to know. Hopefully, no rogue or imposter does a Dana act to make a fortune, which is not so difficult if the media is willing to help.
* Only two days ago, the Odisha Government paid tributes to Mother Teresa, who attained sainthood just a day before or so, by naming a big road after her. The State people lost their cool because the same road had already been named after the famous 19th-century poet Abhimanyu Samnat Singhar, author of several immortal works, including Bidagdha Chintamani, Prema Chintamani, Parbati, Prematarangini and Sulakshana. Unfortunately, the indicative signboards and posts have been removed by road workers as no official would care to know how great the poet or person is or what punishment would await him for defacing the name of the road in any manner. Even in Google earth map, the road is named after the great poet.
Strangely, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation decided on August 28 to name the flyover road from Satya Nagar to Cuttack-Puri Road after Mother Teresa after she was declared saint. Paying tribute to a great naturalised Nobel laureate Indian nun is a matter of divine pride, but not knowing the road has already gone to a great poet is sin. This act of confusion shows that the urban department and the BMC do not ever take care to know which roads are named after whom. That’s the quality of coordination between sibling departments and wings of the Government. let Mother Teresa be given a new road elsewhere, better around hospitals and schools, in the Patia area where famous social workers are earning fame beyond belief. The great poet of two hundred years ago cannot be insulted.
* lastly, a few words relating to the Jagannath Temple, which has ensured Odisha and India a special berth in the world tourism-pilgrimage domain but lately put Odia people in horribly bad light because of the ill-behaved servitors who are, by and large, saintly at all shrines of any faith.
The lowly non-priestly servitors are the most hated. But recently, some priestly class servitors who turned violent and declared criminals have landed in jail or are still absconding. The unruly behaviour was getting worse by the day because a few top police officials had treated them as messengers of the lord. The temple chief allegedly managed to gang up with them clandestinely causing ineffable woe to the hapless devotees.
The incumbent district chief took them head on and fixed them. Hindus across the globe who have experienced torture are rejoicing that Puri is turning safer and they can make several comebacks.
The district needs the present administrative team at least for two years more to have the whole issue resolved well and all problems solved. The State Government is hailed for taking initiatives to reform the temple Act, which is vague in a way in matters of clamping strict disciplinary action against offending servitors. The Tirupati temple, probably the wealthiest shrine in the world, has much to inspire the Puri temple administrators.
A landmark judgment on March 19, 1996 by the Supreme Court upheld the nullification of the centuries-old trusteeship rights of the Tirupati temple’s hereditary Mirasi priests.
The decision abolished the traditional organisational structure which hitherto managed the temple, thereby curbing rampant servitor misconduct and corruption. The lives of the hereditary and hired priests of the temple will never be the same again.
All archakas, gamekars (priests and similar functionaries) and other temple workers will now be put through a selection process to assess their competence and knowledge of the requisite shastras. They will have to pass stringent proficiency requirements either through a guru or elder at home, or by attending any of the schools imparting Vedic education. The court has concluded that the legislature is competent to define qualifications for archakas and to conduct examinations to approve them. The State has also been directed to determine the conditions of service, scale of pay and other emoluments for employees, relative to the income of the temple.
In earlier days, the Mirasis carried home their share of the prasad and consumed it. But as the number of devotees swelled and the quantity of prasad increased, the Mirasis who got larger quantities started selling their shares. The TTD provides all the materials for the prasad preparation, nearly 125,000 daily. So, most Mirasis were getting a tidy 69,000 rupees every day on laddus alone. Now, the public organisation stands to make all that.
The Puri servitors have to first lose hereditary rights and be chosen only after rigorous tests. Then only will the face of Odisha look credible and clean!
Media can play a huge role in influencing people in all matters of public interest.
(The writer is a core member of Transparency International, Odisha)