Former DGP Prakash Mishra was most unceremoniously shunted from his prized post one fine morning without anyone knowing why. It was post general elections. Earlier than this gravely disturbing event, the State bosses including the Chief Minister had pitted several stalwarts against Mishra in the race for CBI Director. Odias were in raptures that yet another top cop from the community would adorn the coveted chair after Uma Shankar Mishra. The skies came crashing down when the Vigilance department filed an FIR against the fairly popular and efficient top cop for having been involved in some purchase deal while heading the State Police Housing Corporation years ago. The CBI post was virtually kept waiting for Mishra when this jolt came. He lost in the game, but the High Court admitted his appeal to hear and scrap FIR. The Union Government ignored the Odisha Government's charges which appeared very flimsy and picked him for CRPF DG, an equally enviable post. Eventually Mishra won with the HC coming down heavily on the Vigilance department for conspiratorial moves without ground.
The truth is now out. Mishra's alert police guys had intercepted an ambulance carrying four crore rupees and another crore rupees worth of liquor, hashish and contraband narcotic drugs during the elections. He did not let the criminals nor listen to political biggies pleading for suppression of the terrible fact. The Election Commissioner was duly informed; but most surprisingly, the Odessa’s Chief Electoral Officer did precious little to tell the masters who committed the unforgivable crime and under whose command. Obviously, the cash and stuff meant to buy voters were being surreptitiously carried in the ambulance to avoid getting caught. Until date, there has been no serious probe into the matter and no attempt to have the offenders nabbed. There is rumour that the top police administration is presently divided into camps and each is playing against the other strategically. But several retired and serving police administrators have revealed that the incumbent Director of the Vigilance is a suspect official as the HC has made clear and that he, along with a close junior, undertook the dirty job of fixing Mishra with the promise of getting prized posts. Truth is slowly rolling out of the holes to surface.
According to the police grapevines, one of the conspirators is referred to as 'Mr Buy-Sell' and the one who volunteered too willingly to dig out dirt against Mishra for benefits in return is sly, slippery and outwardly very gentlemanly. Despite best efforts, no officer came up with the hard facts including names. Interestingly, television talk shows cause great distress and anxiety to the ruling party honchos who appear as spokespersons as not much substance they have defence, especially after the High Court ruling. The routinely talkative lawmakers are gulping fear saliva and losing cool every second minute or flaring up like the violent ones do in the lunatic asylums. As Prakash Mishra is now walking away in a blaze of glory, the conspirators are having sleepless nights and post-lunch afternoons, particularly because people are now exerting immense pressure on the Government to come up with the truth. The moment harsh facts are dug out, quite a few top cops would land in trouble, being seen in bad public light.
The top cop stories do not seem to end at the moment. DGP Marik too did something for which people lost much respect for him: He visited a divine Daru location where the hated Daitas were enacting mythological characters with full dress on, silk attires and lustrous headgears just to hoodwink people. The DGP in his full formal attire arched his spine to bend like vassals do before lords and felt great touching the feet that never walked as expected (they all took swanky cars to roam like princes across the search area). The DGP brought the image of the police force so down that years would roll by before it regains public respect.
lately, Saumendra Priyadarshi, a simple, well-meaning IPS officer, has been deputed to act as an Officer on Special Duty. But there is laughing murmur in Puri that the Daitas are relaxed to have him around for one or two of the frontline Daitas treated him as a kid devotee during his stint at Puri as SP. One of them had the audacity to shove Priyadarshi's head down to prostrate to extract reverence forcibly. All these could be rumours, but that hurts people as it is unlikely that Priyadarshi, the good guy that he is, may not be able to overpower the Daitas while they are at their worst acts of fleecing, browbeating and cheating the public.
The law Minister sleeping cozily sandwiched amid some Daitas at a Daru location in their private camp is pictorially viral on the web and in social media with such bitter comments as to persuade the Minister to step down in minutes and resurface somewhere near Surat to feel at home with a few unemployed Daitas as company to recreate the regal scene of Ananta Sayan as critics say. Surat has an impressive concentration of Odias. The gaping Minister is also shown eating believably leftover food from a leaf inside the camp. The omnipresent Daita around dignitaries is one ‘Tikipua’ who dresses up like a prince despite his terrible looks and poses to be the head. The fact though is he does not even have any service as a Badagrahi. The head Daita named him as the prime culprit who caused havoc while the Nabakalebar event was being performed. He is the one who threatened his community with dire consequences of not allowed inside wrongfully and without any right. The Daitas probably have a right to have a glance of the deities but only after the Brahma transfer is complete. This time they broke all divine rules. They did it in broad daylight, saw everything and showed it to unworthy clan fellows. There is also news that some of them had carried their home idols for the religious burial called Patali in the same place for the deities at Koili Baikuntha. Most hurting, they forced the deity carpenters to carve small deity idols out of the Daru to sell outside for millions. If these are not rumours, the Daitas have to be thrown into jail. As per the temple Act, there is enough provision to dismiss any erring servitor beyond control. The Chief Administrator has to act fast.
As technology has some bane along with the boon, evil masterminds get down to filthy business of abusing the facilities to confuse the world with weird activities. The Brahma exposure or stealing is evidently all crap. The photo is horribly morphed and should be discarded. The State authorities probing into that little issue would be a gross waste of time. The administration would do great identifying the crooks who gate-crashed into the sanctorum and also those who stole all the money donated by the gullible devotees down the route during the Daru transport. In Cuttack alone, hundreds of Puja committees have contributed millions of rupees in the service of the lords. The Daitas, instead of handing the amount over to the temple administration, have shared among themselves and gone scot-free.
Nabakalebar is already over; only the colourful Rath Yatra is awaited. The media must stop counting down stupidly on the Nabakalebar.The Daita menace is high on the Odisha people's mind, and rightly so, for which they forgot to make even a mere mention of the darkest day in Indian democracy on June 25, 1975 when Indira Gandhi had clamped a Emergency signed merrily by a servile President and robustly supported by Jagjivan Ram when most of the Cabinet had grumbled against the illegal move.
The Nabakalebar disaster also takes away public attention from the historic Shimla Agreement on this day in 1972 just after the 1971 war with Pakistan which resulted in the birth of Bangladesh.The Nabakalebar-related fears have not subsided yet. The big Car Festival is round the corner. The Puri administration is on its toes round the clock. But the temple administration has only to wake up just wide and look around for the rogue servitors who are likely to commit any sin for making easy money. Suresh Mohapatra and Saumendra Priyadarshi have a big, big task ahead. A single slip could cause a disaster much higher in intensity than the Super Cyclone of 1999.