Arrested top Maoist leader Sabyasachi Panda found a sympathiser in the form of senior Odisha Congress leader and leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra, who hailed him for his sustained fight for welfare of the poor and eradication of poverty.
But he did not appreciate the means Panda adopted to achieve the objective. Sharply reacting over an elated Chief Minister who gallantly announced the arrest of Panda in the House during Zero Hour on Friday, the leader of Opposition said “arresting the symptoms and not the disease is no credit.” Obviously,
he was pointing out at the failure of the Government at taking adequate measures to ensure development in the Maoist prone areas that led many to take to arms.
“let the Government be not overwhelmed by arresting a leader who was leading a movement, which has been declared illegal,” he said, with a word of advice that the Government’s attention should have been more to eradicate the burning issues.
Mishra said that he would be happy had the issues that give rise to the Maoist movement been sorted out.
However, Mishra’s contention did not augur well with the ruling BJD members, some of whom were heard criticising the leader of Opposition.
Irked over the disruption of his speech in the mid way, Mishra slammed the Government and the Treasury Bench members as “law breakers” and sought the Speaker to decide action as deemed fit against the Chief Minister and his Cabinet colleagues for violating the rules and procedure of the House regularly.
Even, he sought to know from the Treasury Bench members whether they would dare condemn the great leader Biju Patnaik for his utterances in the House in connection with the Maoist movement.
“Do you know what great leader Biju Patnaik had saidIJ I am the number one Naxalite. Will you now condemn Biju PatnaikIJ” Mishra asked and reminded the House of Biju Patnaik’s statement that the movement is not only a problem of law and order; rather
it is a socio-economic movement as well. He said that people were forced to violate the law and took the law into their own hands, when law is not respected. Mishra said the Government had not respected the law and the rules of the procedure of the House by not laying the Commission of inquiry report relating to hooch tragedy, not informing the House on the Cabinet decisions and refusing to make statement over the child sale issue in the Capital city.
Rather the Ministers chose to make statements before the media, he said, adding everybody should be punished who violates law.
The leader of Opposition during the Zero Hour also led his party colleagues to stage a walkout in protest against the Speaker for not allowing the Opposition Chief Whip Taraprasad Bahinipati to make his point on the arrest of Sabyasachi.