On the 168th birth anniversary of Utkal Gaurav Madhusudan Das, the Freethought Party Of India (FPI) organised a seminar on “Prayer less quality English medium education needed for every child throughout Odisha for removal of blind belief, caste and untouchability”.
Presiding over the seminar, FPI president Dr Bijayananda Kar said, “Odisha should not implement the outdated Official language Act, 1954.” He criticised all those who are now campaigning to implement the act for wider use of Odia.
While introducing the topic, general secretary B Ramchandra CST Voltaire stated that Madhusudan Das never sought Odisha to be primitive and backward. “Backwardness of the people would surely stand removed if Odia boys and girls are given right facilities to get themselves educated in quality English medium schools. But this objective is going to be very much defeated because of the illogical pressure built on the State Government to use Odia for all official correspondences and promote Odia medium education,” he lamented.
Campaign for Electoral Reforms in India (CERI) chief Manas Jena graced the seminar at chief guest and attacked the caste system prevalent in Odisha and more particularly, in the rural belt. He said even Satyabhama, the village where Utkal Gourav was born in 1848, was not free from the scourge of caste system.
AMOFOI co-finder Swapna Bijayini said that the true homage to Madhusudan would be to completely secularise the academic institutions and promote scientific temper and spirit of inquiry.
No purpose would be served by opening an Odia languge University in the State while existing universities are not in good shapes, observed former bureaucrat Kalyan Ray.