In early April this year, gangrape of an Odia woman in Delhi shook the Odisha Assembly. Promptly, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik directed DGP Prakash Mishra to follow up with his Delhi counterparts in this matter.
Ruling BJD MlAs vociferously condemned the Congress Government in Delhi in this regard. Pramila Mallick, president of the BJD women’s wing Biju Mahila Janata Dal (BMJD) took out a candlelight procession demanding immediate arrest of the culprits. She even went to Delhi and met the Delhi Police.
But unfortunately, three gruesome rapes have taken place within the last one month in Odisha, but not once are the BJD MlAs found condemn the incidents nor are Pramila Mallick and the BMJD on the streets expressing solidarity with the rape victims. Is it selective amnesia on the part of the BJD leaders or a fear that condemning this incident would expose the inefficiency of their own leader Naveen Patnaik and his ineffective governance in OdishaIJ
Naveen Patnaik was quick to denounce the Nirbhaya gangrape in Delhi, and rightly so. But when rapes have become an order of the day in Odisha, he prefers to keep mum. Naturally for him, in Odisha the law would take its own course or none at all, for all he cares.
On June 5 this year, a gruesome rape and murder of a 13-year-old visually-impaired girl took place in Puri district. The girl was abducted while sleeping outside her house at Beldal village of Puri district and taken to the Puri-Konark marine drive road and raped. It is also reported that probably later the accused tried to strangulate her and then forced an iron rod into her private parts. And the victim girl bled to death as a result of the grievous injuries sustained in the brutal assault. Another Nirbhaya passed away under the watch of the BJD Government, unsung. No candles burnt for her, not a single BJD MlA or their Chief Minister batted an eyelid. Naturally, Puri is far away from Delhi. Ultimately, who bothers if a Nirbhaya in Puri in Odisha is a victim of such barbarityIJ Scoring brownie points in Delhi is far lucrative for the BJD dispensation.
And on June 17, 2013, a 27-year-old tribal woman was allegedly raped in a moving bus while she was travelling from Mayurbhanj to Cuttack. This incident brings chills of a similar bus incident of Nirbhaya in Delhi. But while Naveen was quick to raise alarm on the incident in Delhi, he prefers to look the other way when questions are cast about this incident in Odisha. Naturally, for a politician whose governance deficit is a gnawing divide, answers to such questions are not easy.
About a month back, a 15-year-old minor tribal girl of Dhangergudi village, close to the Chhattisgarh border, under the Kinjirkela police limits in Sundargarh district of Odisha was kidnapped and gangraped. Kinjirkela PS OIC Bhagawat Nayak informed that the girl was forcibly taken to a nearby forest area, gangraped and left at the spot. The Naveen Patnaik Government boasts of tribal empowerment but prefers to remain silent when heinous crimes are perpetuated on them. No words of compassion or condemnation follow.
These unsung and unwept Nibhayas of Odisha do not make much of news headlines in Odisha and in the country. When no one remembers the Nirabhayas like Sasmita Mallick and Bebina Behera over passage of time, naturally these three recent Nirabhayas will also be forgotten as footnotes in the sands of time as the BJD Government would continue to have the luxury to indulge in blissful slumber. And the Odisha media in general will on occasions only make cursory references to the ghastly incidents.
(Dr Sasmit Patra is a keen observer of the Odisha politics. He can be reached at sasmitpatra@gmail.com)