(On the 97th birthday of Padmacharan Nayak)
Nonagenarian social activist Padmacharan Nayak, who is inching towards a century, completed his ninety-six years on January 29, 2022. He reveals that the secret of his comparative agility lies in his sacred mission of prohibition of all intoxicants. Nayak in his teens participated in the country’s freedom movement. After completion of his post-graduation in science, he opted for a socio-political life instead of a comfortable, secure job.
It is told that he who is not a communist in his youth has no heart. Accordingly, Padababu spent the vital period of his youth as a communist. But it did not take much time to be disillusioned. As a free thinker, he remained a socialist all his life. Though his attires are not Gandhian, he is a genuine “Gandhijan” in his way of life and action. Almost for a decade, he has dedicated himself to the cause of total prohibition of liquor and all other intoxicants.
This patriarch of prohibition movement has been travelling every extent of Odisha and is an inspiration for thousands of youths and women dedicated to this cause. He is aware that Odisha cannot be liquor-free unless the entire country is so. To realise this aim, an all-India forum has been formed to unite all those who have been fighting for this cause under the aegis of Milita Odisha Nisha Nibarana Abhijan. Nayak organised national conventions at Bhubaneswar and in New Delhi and a forum has been christened as “Madamukta Bharat Abhijan”. The 2nd National Convention at New Delhi in February 2020 under his chairmanship was quite a success, being attended by delegates from 18 States; and Shri Nitish Kumar, the champion of liquor-free Bihar, was star of the occasion. Padababu is now devoting most of his time to strengthen the organisation of “Liquor-free India or Sarab-Mukt Bharat”.
Padababu parries with ease apparently-difficult questions of prohibition of liquor confronted by officially liquor-free States due to consumption of spurious liquor and resultant deaths. He cites much higher figures of deaths due to road accidents, majorities of which are due to alcoholism. It is an established fact that alcoholics are susceptible to early diabetes, which results in innumerable untimely deaths. As an ardent Gandhian, he has devoted himself to this noble national cause at such an advanced age and exclaims to die in harness.
After the successful stories of prohibition in Bihar, he is sanguine about the success of this movement elsewhere though it may need some more time. He expects that opportune time before his death and working in that direction relentlessly in the Gandhian way that he has internalised lifelong. Padababu is a big elephant, but we discussed about its one leg only.
(The writer is a member, Padmacharan Nayak Abhinandan Samiti. Phone: 8984007600