It would be an insult to patriotism if Biju’s Dakota is preserved in Orissa Museum

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

BJD member in Orissa Legislative Assembly Debashish Nayak has made a demand in the House that the parked and abandoned Dakota airplane of  Biju Patnaik’s Kalinga Airlines be brought from Kolkata airpost and be preserved in the State Museum at Bhubaneswar. Sycophancy knows no bound. But it will be the worst insult to patriotism if his demand is fulfilled.

I explain, why.

A major reason of more than eleven thousand square kilometers of our soil being lost in the Chinese aggression was because of Biju Patnaik’s treachery against the country executed through his Kalinga Airlines.

On October 20, 1962, China had attacked India. We had to suffer the most ignominious defeat in Chinese hands, because there was a man Biju Patnaik in the near circle of Prime Minister Nehru eager to make huge income by sabotaging the country.

Brig. John Delvi in his book ‘Himalayan Blunder’ has pointed out that India lost more than 11000 square kilometers of her land to China in the 1962 war because of lack of basic essentials like warm clothing, snow boots, and glasses.

Biju Patnaik had fetched a contract toJohn Delvi,  airdrop these essential supplies to our soldiers in the NEFA front. But, instead of delivering the same to our soldiers, he had sold away those supplies in black-markets  (Lok Sabha Debates (V) (1967) 7980-7990).

Because of this treason, our soldiers had lost their stamina to fight and we were in the worst of debacles after our independence.

This particular debate was generated in the environment of availability of Lt. General B. M. Kaul’s accounts on our war debacle in his book ‘The Untold Story’’.

In this book, General Kaul, who was in command, had attributed the defeat partly to inadequate supply of essential necessities too.

Nehru’s then blue-eyed boy Biju had cultivated the contract for delivering the supply of essential necessities to our fighting soldiers in the NEFA front through his Kalinga Airlines. But, instead of delivering the supply to the soldiers, he had sold them in the black-market at Calcutta, at Dibrugarh, at Jorhat and other places.

In the Lok Sabha debate mentioned above, when Hem Barua had rued over this, S. M. Banerjee had pointed out that when in the snow-clad battlefield on the border our soldiers were in dire need of basic essentials like warm clothing, and some of the countries like West Germany had rushed profuse amount of top quality woolens like blankets, pullovers, shocks and snow-shoes etc for use of our fighting forces, the same never reached them, as the rich people grabbed them for their own comfort through the black-market fed by Kalinga Airways of Biju Patnaik.
Despite having sold the essential defense supplies in the black-market, Biju had bagged Rs. 1, 78, 33, 416.00 from the exchequer towards charges of their delivery in the border (Prime Minister Nehru’s reply to Surendranath Dwivedi in the Lok Sabha on 25 January 1963)

Biju had committed many offenses against the country even before the Chinese attack. One of these offenses was unauthorized use of an aircraft of his company- known to defense intelligence as a plane under contract with their department – on 26 October 1959 in secret service of a group of unidentified persons that had traveled to and fro between Calcutta and Bombay.

Questionable conduct of Biju’s airways, specifically as the defense of the country was involved, was inquired into through a committee headed by Katju. The findings of this Committee were devastating. But, lest Nehru’s fault in relying upon Biju also gets exposed, his government claimed privilege over the report and denied even the MPs to go through it, though on December 01, 1960, the Lok Sabha was fed with a vetted synopsis thereof after a lot of ruckus.

Biju was the first mafia to have entered politics and polluted politics for personal aggrandizement. Nehru had made shameful contributions to this.

So, despite confession that the Katju Committee had found massive irregularities committed by Kalinga airways, the government was not to terminate the contract with him, as a result of which, the defense supplies did not reach the soldiers in the battle field, but fetched profit for Biju from the black-market in places like Calcutta, Dibrugarh and Jorhat.

The then Minister of State (Home)Vidya Charan Shukla had told Atal Behari Vajpayee in reply to his star question bearing No. 785 on 28 June 1962, that the Public Accounts Committee had found many specific illegalities and forgeries, which the Kalinga Airways of Biju Patnaik had committed. By blackmailing Nehru, Biju escaped prosecution.

The Public Accounts Committee of Parliament had found that during the war, Kalinga Airways had at least 1600 unauthorized flights over the war zone. This was a serious offense. The country had neither authorized nor had funded these 1600 flights over the border where the war was going on, in the most sensitive time. As the PAC mentioned of this matter, and it was clear that the government had to investigate into it, the number of these suspicious and unauthorized flights was tampered with and in place of 1600, the figure was projected as 200. When Mr. G. G. Swell queried on who tampered with the figure of the unauthorized flights, Minister Shukla had declared, that the committee investigating into the specific offenses of Kalinga Airlines, would also look into this mischief.

But, Biju escaped, because any action against him could also have brought to limelight the wrongful patronization Nehru had given to him oblivious of harms that was causing to the country.

The whereabouts of Kalinga Airlines was not kept track of. The loss that the nation suffered because of Biju Patnaik’s treachery was not determined. The pilots of the airways without whose collaboration Biju could not have committed the illegalities were never interrogated, when Kalingalines aircrafts crashed one after one, the last reported being a Douglas C-47A on October 17, 1965 with 8 fatalities that had extinguished the entire crew whom the nation should have interrogated to know the truth.

If anything, Biju deserves posthumous punishment for treachery against the country. Why the debates in parliament, exposures in Katju Committee as well as PAC reports were rendered inconsequential should be investigated into by a competent Judicial Commission of Enquiry, as greater interest of the country calls for that.

Therefore, it would be a great insult to Orissa and to the patriotic sense of the people of Orissa, if the sycophantic demand of the BJD member in the State Assembly is heeded to.

There is no RBT in Orissa: Zoo Director ought to use the correct term ‘Mahabala Bagha’

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak White tigress Sheha has given birth to four cubs in Nandankanan zoo on July 28. But the zoo director Sudarsan Panda has repeated the wrong in speculating how many of them are of ‘Royal Bengal Tiger’ (RBT) group. Sheer nonsense. The cubs are born in Orissa’s Nandankanan zoo to Orissa’s tiger Manish and tigress Sneha. How to the zoo director any of them is a RBT? It seems, the zoo director is reluctant to claim Orissa’s tiger as Orissa’s tiger. He is unable to come out of his cocoon of copying the non-Oriya terms when Oriya terms are available. Orissa is the home of the category of tigers known in Oriya language as Mahabala Bagha. There are three popular types of Bagha in Orissa. They are: Mahabala, Kalarapataria and Baghendra. In my childhood days, in my birthplace Tigiria and adjoining princely states like Baramba, Narasinghpur, Hindol, Dhenkanal and Athgarh, there was a tiger of small size called Baghendra, which perhaps is now extinct. Kalarapataria is a sort of leopard with synonyms like Kendua and Tindua. The Mahabala is the largest kind of tiger that has profuse mention in ancient literature and scriptures of Orissa. As Buddha is by birth an Oriya, our ancestors had projected him even as Mahabala. Mahabala is referred as a Buddhist deity. The word ‘Maha’ – the greatest – is a peculiar word of assertion of Oriya mana. As for example, Orissa’s great river is named ‘Mahanadi’ (Maha+Nadi). The food coming to devotees after being offered to Sri Jagannatha Buddha is ‘Mahaprasada’ (Maha+Prasada). The sea at Puri, the seat of Jagannatha, is ‘Mahodadhi’ (Maha+Udadhi). Similarly the great tiger of Orissa, bearer of Maha Shakti (Immense strength) is Mahabala in Oriya language. Therefore, the greatest son of Orissa for all time to come, Buddha, who is being worshiped as Jagannatha, is also known and presented and worshipped as ‘Mahabala Buddha’, his illuminating body evolving from the body of the Mahabala bagha. It is sad that, Oriya officers like the zoo director, are not projecting the great tiger of Orissa by its original name – Mahabala Bagha. They fear, lest the international community fails to understand the word. They are wrong. Even in England, what the Orissa zoo director wrongfully holds as RBT, is known as Mahabala. Mark the tiger toy with ‘I Love Mahabala’ T-shirt. It is so popular in U.K. and U.S.A. Children and adults there understand that Mahabala is a tiger. I fail to understand, why the zoo director is averse to call Orissa’s tiger as Mahabala bagha? And, a shame, he projects the Mahabala cubs of Orissa in the name of RBT! RBT is a confused English term which was created after the low paid servants of East India Company had occupied a weak Bengal, and had used the word ‘royal’ to self-assign them a blue blood tag. To keep this mischief alive till date may be no affront to Bengal, but is certainly an affront to Orissa, the ancient soil of patriotic pride that was the last land to be annexed by the British in India and the first land to rise in revolt for emancipation, as admitted even by the British historian G.Toynbee in the following words: “It was not long, however, before we had to encounter a storm which burst with so sudden fury as to threaten our expulsion…” (A sketch of the history of Orissa). So, on this soil of patriotic pride, Oriya officers like the zoo director, ought to practice how to project the great tiger of Orissa as Mahabala bagha. Let it be called RBT in any state; in Orissa it needs be called in its Oriya name – Mahabala Bagha – a name that carries Oriya mana and the great Oriya Buddhist  and literary heritage.

If there be no State terror there may be no terrorist

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

In reaction to a posting captioned ‘Sabyasachi Panda: crime under colonial definition is no crime per se’ published in these pages on July 26, a reader Arun Kumar Upadhyaya has hurled a comment with obnoxious and defamatory words. As these pages are not to spread nasty reactions in filthy languages, Upadhyaya’s comment is discarded.

For him and any reader of his ilk, it would be better to be warned that these pages are not designed to be used for the pleasure of the rightist rats or for capitalist snakes for spewing out venom of religious revivalism, fascism, fanaticism, atavism, caste/religion supremacism and any suchlike nuisance.

This site is dedicated to the voiceless people, not to violence. We want to reach the root of violence to explore how the society could be free of violence. We oppose violence that breeds violence and our endeavor to see how violence is not generated is caused by our concern for our present and future generations, which gets expression in these pages.

So, readers are welcome to react to any posting in these pages without violating their composure and strictly in a way that would be considered congenial to the working class, whose interest this site is addressed to.

To this site, terrorists are not the original cause of terror.

The word ‘terrorist’ evolved from the French word ‘terooriste’ used by king of France and his tyrant team against the leadership of the French Revolution. The said revolution was aimed at ending the autocratic rule of the king and to usher in democracy and equality. So, obviously, by origin and practice, ‘terrorist’ is a word that was and is being used against the revolutionaries by the very same fellows who violate the people’s right to live happily and use the State to terrorize the people.

Had there been no State terror, there may not be any terrorist.

Sabyasachi Panda: crime under colonial definition is no crime per se

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Reacting on my posting of July 24, captioned ‘Mili Panda hopes situation shall not be created for creation of many Sabyasachis’, a very dear and close relation of mine, Sriman Hari Prasad Patnaik has postedhis views in social media Face Book. I quote the relevant portion: “………….every criminal’s kith and kin will always vouch for the criminal’s innocence and his/her pious and oh so clean way of life. That is a natural reaction. So I doubt whether we should take Mili Panda’s statement to be the gospel truth”.

Even as I appreciate these words, which, to me, are born out of Hari Prasad’s aversion to violence, I would like to say, revolutionaries like Sabyasachi Panda cannot be termed as criminals. There are many discussions going on, specifically by the elites, in the media, wherein Sabyasachi is being projected as a criminal. Certain activities attributed to him by the police connotes to crime as defined in the IPC that the British had promulgated to suppress Indian voices against exploitation. But there is reason to differ with what the IPC has defined as crime.

Be it appreciated that every crime is an outcome of a crime that generates a cause for the crime. As criminology holds it, no activity that looks like a crime is a crime, if criminal intention is not present.

So, every crime is not to be treated as one.

There is vast difference between crime that gives birth to consequential crime and crime that takes place consequent upon a crime.

Difference between crime and crime

Thus crime is not similar on all occasions. This dissimilarity makes crime viewed differently. And this difference is based on two different basic patterns: Generating Crime that gives birth to a consequential crime and Generated Crime, which is the product of a crime that generates situation for its perpetration. Therefore, crimes are of two distinctly different patterns.

Crime with criminal intention belongs to the first pattern and consequential crime belongs to the second pattern.

For example, when a trader hoards essential commodities, he does it with criminal intention to fetch more profit in the black market. So, hoarding is a crime of the first pattern.

Watching the plight of consumers, a conscious person intervenes and asks the hoarder to release the commodities, which is not heeded to by the hoarder, who continues increasing his personal wealth with massive profit from the black market with the state machinery in his pocket. Time comes, when the protester deems it proper to get the society rid of the hoarder in a way matching the armed protection given to him by his Patron State. Here his action, in terms of IPC, may be defined as a crime; but in reality, there is no criminal intention behind this crime. This crime is of the second pattern.

Violent action of a person affected by black market, against the hoarder may look like a crime under the colonial definition of crime,  but in reality, it is consequential to the crime perpetrated by the hoarder under protection of the State, which fellows of his like control.  Thus,  hoarding is the Generating Crime and consequential protests against hoarding, even if that causes bloodshed, are Generated Crime.

Sabyasachi Panda’s crime, if any, is Generated Crime, not Generating Crime. So, he is not a criminal.

Moreover his action, even if violent, is no crime with criminal intention against the society.

Had there been no State-terror, had the State not stood with the exploiters, I believe, highly gifted persons like Sabysachi Panda, entirely dedicated to the cause of the toiling masses, would never have chosen the violent path.

Kalinga Nagar Massacre

To understand the difference between Generating Crime and Generated Crime in a better way, conduct of Tata industry in Kalinga Nagar and revolt of tribal people of the locality vis-à-vis the bloody role the State played in support of Tata on January 2, 2006 may be of guiding help.

Look at any industry, the same scenario will speak aloud about how protesters against exploitation and destruction of their living environment are being branded as criminals by the police state, even though their actions are mere reactions to Generating Crime that the wealthy class perpetrates.

Shikara of Bhagabati Panigrahi

Crux of this phenomenon was most ably dealt with in the epoch making story ‘Shikara’ of Bhagabati Panigrahi , father of progressive literature in Orissa. I would like to transform an excerpt from this story to first person narration while roughly translating the same into English.

The hero of the story is Ghinua, an innocent forest dweller, who, tortured by a wealthy man namely Gobind Sardar, had beheaded him sans any qualms. He had narrated the reason of his action in his deposition in the court. And, the court had given him death sentence for the crime of murder. Till execution of the death sentence, he had not known the meaning of murder.

Please mark, what he had told the court, which, as I have already said, I am converting here into first person dialogue from Bhagabati’s narration for better understanding.

He had said to the Court, “I had to overcome a lot of difficulties in cutting off Gobind Sardar’s head. Many more persons were trying to kill him, but none of them had succeeded, as Gobind Sardar was always moving in a motor vehicle. He had accumulated wealth by looting everybody. He was personification of a great Satan. One cannot describe how many persons he had killed, how many persons he had ruined, how many women he had raped. He had taken away my landed properties in similar sinister manner. That evening he had even attempted to rape my wife. How dared he! He was fleeing in the motor vehicle on seeing me. He was trying to escape. I immobilized his vehicle by shooting my arrow to its tire. Then I chopped off his head and sped up to the Deputy Commissioner’s bungalow covering 30 miles through the dense forest in the night (with the full confidence that I will be rewarded sumptuously for having killed a man more dreaded than a tiger)”.

Photo copy of the paragraph from the printed story ‘Shikara’ is given below.

Every reader of this epoch making story knows that, Ghinua had rushed to the Deputy Commissioner in hope of larger amount of reward than what he had received on previous occasions on killing Mahabala Bagha (Orissa’s tiger of massive strength) as to him, Gobinda Sardar was more savage than the tigers he had earlier killed. Instead of rewarding him for killing a man more sinister and menacing than a Mahabala Bagha, the British law had found him guilty of homicide and had given him death sentence for the crime.

Is there anybody in the world who really holds Ghinua a criminal? No, never.

He was totally innocent. His action was not a crime, but just a reaction to the unbearable crimes perpetrated by wealth accumulator and debauch – the real criminal, whom administration had never prosecuted – Gobinda Sardar.

Therefore, he is, and will remain forever the trendsetter of active action against exploitation and foul play of the criminals in power.

To sane minds, Ghinua is not a criminal, because what the law of the tyrant State defines as his crime, was nothing but a reaction to the heinous crimes the wealthy man Gobinda Sardar was in habit of perpetrating with the administrative machinery in his pocket.

Sabyasachi Panda and suchlike users of weapons against Gobinda Sardars of today are nothing but Ghinuas in modern forms, whose commitment to the cause of the helpless poor and voiceless toiling human beings has landed them in the labyrinth of the colonial law where the elite class is branding them as criminals.

Beyond the limits of this colonial Law and in the realm of romance of sacrifice and suffering for the poor, helpless, and voiceless brethren, they are the beacon lights that shall never fade.

So, what Ms. Mili Panda has told of her husband, cannot be in limine rejected. The colonial definition of crime needs be amended, as most of what gets projected as crime is no crime per se.

Mili Panda hopes situation shall not be created for creation of many Sabyasachis

It is wrong to say, with arrest of Sabyasachi Panda Maoism gets extinguished in Orissa, said Ms. Mili Panda, wife of the co-founder of Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist-Maoist) Sabysachi Panda, presently facing police interrogation, having been remanded to police custody after his arrest on July 18.

Participating in a local TV channel interview, she said this evening that, her husband’s revolutionary sacrifices will not be allowed to be tarnished by cooked up allegations. His path is a radical political path adopted out of love and concern for the people, who are imperiled by misgovernance and governmental apathy. As far as she knows him, she has reason to believe that he is being implicated for offenses he has not committed, she said.

Refusing to be sidetracked over alleged recovery of gold from his possession, Ms. Panda termed the allegation irresponsible. It is sad that a man who lives only with a pair of dresses, and has knowingly endangered his own life in pursuing a dream for emancipation of the poor toiling masses, is being subjected to concocted innuendos. “Gold possession and Sabyasachi Panda are poles apart and as his wife, I vouch for that”, she said.

Ms. Panda is known for her eagerness to see her husband in mainstream politics. She expressed happiness over her husband’s arrest, because therewith prospects for him shunning acrimonious radicalism and joining the mainstream may open up.

His radicalism being born out of total compassion for the voiceless poor, the State should treat him with sympathy and regard a revolutionary deserves, as otherwise, the situation shall give birth to many Sabyasachis, she warned.

Judicial Enquiry Essential to determine if Justice Laxmikanta Mohapatra did not act a conduit for a Chit Fund Mafia

 

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

(With core information from Jayanta Kumar Das)

Had Justice Laxmikanta Mohapatra not acted a conduit for chit fund operator Pradeep Kumar Sethy, he could never have acquired a ‘B’ category plot measuring 4000 sq.ft. in the most lucrative Bidanasi Housing Project area of Markata Nagar of Cuttack and by way of its transfer, would never have formed the triangle with the State’s Advocate General Asoka Mohanty.

RTI activist Jayanta Das deserves all praise for having dug out information that are to be dealt with here. The information is available in social media, as he and Alok Jena have shared them with the society. I was expecting Justice Mohapatra to react. He is silent. Advocate General Mohanty could have also come out with his clarification. He has not. Padeep Sethy has been arrested and facing trial for cheating the chit fund depositors. With him entangled in this plot scandal are Justice Mohapatra, then of Orissa High Court on one side and Orissa’s Advocate General Asoka Mohanty on the other!

This triangular scandal has another side also. We are conducting an enquiry thereon and will deal with the same after our investigation is over.

But it is time to say, to us it seems, Justice Mohapatra has acted a conduit for the chit fund mafia Pradeep Sethy.

It seems Justice Mohapatra has acted from the beginning to arrange the plot for the economic offender. He had no real necessity for the residential plot in Markata Nagar of Cuttack City. This is evidenced in his later declaration that, being a permanent resident of Cuttack City, neither he nor any of his family would ever need a residential plot in any of the housing projects of CDA. So, evidently there was no urgency for him to use official letterhead of the High Court to apply for the plot under discretionary quota which is ethically meant for helping people who are in very urgent need of a residential plot, but quick allotment of the required land to them is not possible in the normal process. The urgency for the allocation expressed in his application is obviously not for his use, but for circumventing the allocation process for a shadow beneficiary who subsequently transpired to be a chit fund cheat. Let us see why this occurs to us.

The ‘B’ category plot could not have normally come to Sethy. Not even to Laxmikanta Mohapatra as an Individual in normal allocation process. So Mohapatra used the official letterhead of the Orissa High Court to browbeat the authorities and acquired the plot by way of allocation from the discretionary quota of the Chairman of Cuttack Development Authority.

To bag the plot, he hoodwinked the law by crafty suppression of the fact that he has already had his residential house in the city of Cuttack. He is a permanent resident of Stoney Road, Chandini Chowk, Cuttack. The law says, a resident of the City cannot be allotted with a residential plot from the CDA in the city of Cuttack. Therefore, suppressing that he has permanent house in the Cuttack City, he stated in his application dated October 11, 2006. “I have no land at Markata Nagar, Abhinaba Bidanasi, Cuttack either in my name or in the name of any of my family members”, as if Markata Nagar is a different place and not a part of the City of Cuttack. CDA also helped him in this mischief in the body of allocation.

The use of the High Court letterhead and his position as Judge of the Orissa High Court was too intimidating for the CDA staff to examine the legality and ethicality and eligibility aspects in allocation of the land to him. And, consequently, Plot No. 11-38/1332 measuring 4000 sq.ft. in ‘B’ category was given to him for only Rs.9,50,500/- under order No. 12699 of CDA on 25.5.2007. Mohapatra took over possession of the plot on 23,07.07. But did not bother about execution of the lease deed. Had the deed been executed, he would have been required to pay to the exchequer in form of Stamps. Non-execution of the lease deed for several years after allocation of the land to and taking over of the land by Justice Mohapatra was deliberate, because, a design was already on the anvil to transfer the plot to Sethy with a huge profit margin by way of commercial use of the plot, though the allocation was strictly for residential use of Justice Mohapatra.

Mahapatra had no right to use the plot in commercial transaction. Firstly, being a judge, he should not have sought for personal benefit at the discretion of the CDA chairman, which was de facto bound to make him obliged to the boss of a commercial institute that deals with allocation of plots and contracts of developmental works necessitating judicial intervention as and when occasion arises. Secondly, had he wanted not to continue with the allotted plot, he should have surrendered the same to the CDA before making any value addition thereto. He did not do. He had a design to make a commercial profit out of it. He has made the commercial transaction behind back of the CDA before the lease deed was executed  and has nose led it to put stamp of approval on his commercial deal.

I quote from his affidavit where he has informed the CDA in these words: “I have entered into negotiation with Sri Pradeep Kumar Sethy S/o Rama Chandra Sethy, resident of Ananta Nagar, 6th lane, Berhampur -760005, Dist. Ganjam, Orissa for transfer of the above plot because of my legal necessity and I have received the consideration money amounting to Rs.1,00.00.000/- (Rupees One Crore only) as agreed between us”.

Mark the mischief. He has not made this negotiation with the chit fund mafia Pradeep Sethy with permission of the CDA. He has simply declared that he has entered into negotiation with Sethy to transfer the plot to him by already having received Rs.1 crore as consideration money and has asked the CDA to transfer the said plot to Sethy, as by then the lease deed was not executed. As the lease deed was not executed, he was not to make the registration. The transfer was not to be done in the land registration office of Government of Orissa, but was to be done in the file only in the office of the CDA. So, despite the land transfer made against consideration money amounting to a crore of rupees, the same being done out of the Registration office, the stamps applicable to a Rs.1 crore worth land transaction was not to come to the exchequer.

In order not to give any scope to CDA to allot the plot to any other person than Sethy, Mohapatra stated, “I have not negotiated with any other person for transfer of the plot” and undertook “to hand over possession of the land to Pradeep Kumar Sethy after obtaining permission for transfer of the ownership allotment and before execution of the lease deed in favor of the prospective transferee”.

On receiving this affidavit, CDA “transferred” the plot from Justice Mohapatra to Pradeep Sethy under order No. 8098 dt.23.4.2011 “to be used only for residential purpose” with the stipulation that “the residential building must be constructed within one year from the date of issue of this letter”. This stipulation indicates that no “residential building” was standing on the plot by that date, which prompts us to infer that Justice Mhapatra had lied in the affidavit about standing of a two-storied building in the plot just to add about (90 lakh of rupees worth value to the plot procured by paying the CDA a sum of Rs.9,80,500/- only. Had the double-storied residential building been really there, CDA could not have subjected the transfer of the plot from Mohapatra’s name to Sethy’s name to a non-violable condition that the “residential building must be constructed within one year from the date of issue of the land transfer letter. Mohapatra being a Judge, that too a Chief Justice of a High Court now, it is expected that he should clarify the position for removal of shrouds of suspicion over the issue.

Sethy took possession of the plot on the same day, i.e. 23.4.2011 and without getting the lease deed executed, and violating the condition for residential use of the plot, entered into a negotiation with Advocate General Mohanty to transfer the plot to his name on receipt of Rs.1,00,01,000/- towards consideration money.

Thus, two major transactions worth more than Rs.2 crores was carried out on the same plot twice behind back of the Registration Office, Had the lease deeds been executed promptly after allocation of the land by the CDA, the transfer, instead of the concerned file in the office of the CDA, must have been done in the Land Registrar’s office and huge amounts of revenue in shape of stamps could have come to the State Exchequer then and there. Yet again, it transpires from the communication of CDA to Asoka Mohanty bearing No.6953 dated 22.3.13 that there was no residential building on the plot, for which Mohanty was subjected to the terms and condition that he was to construct the “Residential Building” on the plot as a “must” “within one year from the date of issue of this letter”, failing which, “the lease would be determined and allotment will be cancelled and the possession of the plot would be taken over by the Authority”.
So, here also, evidently the land was transferred to Mohanty without subjecting the said transfer to necessary stamps.

However, Sethy has stated in his affidavit that he was making the transaction with Mohanty “because of personal necessity”. But Justice Mohapatra had made the transaction with Sethy not for personal necessity, but for “Legal necessity”.

What was the “Legal Necessity” of Justice Mohapatra to negotiate with Sethy for transfer of the allocation from his name to Sethy’s name in the file of the CDA?

Unless Justice Mohapatra comes out with details of why it was a “legal necessity” for him to transfer his plot to Pradeep Sethy, it may be difficult to discard the suspicion that he has acted a conduit for the chit fund mafia in the instant case. This angle is is difficult to be discarded in view of the fact that he had not responded to any advertisement of CDA for the plot, but had applied in the High Court pad as it was understood by him that some plots of CDA were available for allotment. Mark the media added above. There he says, “I understand that some plots of land of Cuttack Development Authority are available within Cuttack Municipal area. I have no land Markata Nagar, Abhinav Bidanasi, cuttack……”. The question is, who made him understand this? When the availability of the plot was not advertised, how could he came to know of it? From the developments discussed above, we are inclined to suspect that Sethy had obtained the information and had made Justice Mahapatra apply for the same with yet unknown compulsions, which had forced to hand him over the plot under “legal necessity”. This suspicion cannot end till he gives details of the “legal necessity” and convinces the public that in this scandal, he is innocent.

A sitting Chief Justice of a High Court and an Advocate General of a State Government forming the triangle with a chit fund mafia over the plot in question, an enquiry by the Supreme Court of India into this scandal seems essential to cleanse the judicial system of misusers of their privileged positions. And, the sooner it is done, the better.

Challenges and Opportunities in Jharkhand : The role of Unicef

Dr. Shubhashish Sircar
In Jharkhand, about 40% of the people live below the poverty line, and about half the children younger than three are considered malnourished.

Hilly terrain hampers outreach efforts in some areas of the state.

Until recently, many families followed an old traditions that unwittingly threatened children’s lives. Believing the colostrum to be dirty and useless they would give their newborns goat’s warm milk dripped into their mouths from a cloth.

Old traditions and beliefs required new mothers to discard their colostrum, the first, nutrient-rich breast milk instead of giving it to their newborns. Colostrum is rich in antibodies and protects the baby against many infections and diseases. But, tradition differs and poses a challenge.

Other Challenges and Opportunities:

• Three quarters of young children and adolescent girls are anaemic, and many are deficient in vitamin A
• One-third of Jharkhand’s children do not have full immunization against childhood diseases.

• The state’s literacy rate is 66%. Dropout rate among poor, female and tribal children at the elementary education level is high.

• Child marriage is still prevalent in tribal communities.

• A large number of households in rural Jharkhand don’t use toilets. The common village practice of open defecation in neighboring fields is responsible for much ill health and contaminated water supplies
• Improved sources of drinking water are not available to 38% of the state’s population. Arsenic and other pollutants are present in many wells in some of the districts.

• About half the families in the state do not use adequately iodized salt, which is important in preventing iodine deficiency that can result in physical and mental retardation.

UNICEF in action

UNICEF is prioritizing reducing the high malnutrition and maternal as well as child mortality rates, and reaching out to the most marginalized families in Jharkhand to address these concerns.

The Dular strategy, which trains village women to counsel new mothers about breastfeeding and proper nutrition, is a successful approach that is already expected to prevent about one quarter of newborn deaths and save the lives of thousands of older babies and children.

The Dular initiative is of particular importance to tribal children who are most vulnerable to disease, malnutrition and education disparities, as prejudice, isolation and misunderstanding make it difficult for these families to access services.

Water and education initiatives are also the focus of UNICEF’s efforts in the state to help disadvantaged children attend school and ensure that all communities have access to safe drinking water.

UNICEF initiatives include:

• Child Survival  is an issue of utmost importance to UNICEF.

The Dular programme was successfully initiated a decade ago to train thousands of volunteer village women, called LRP (local resource people), to teach new mothers about the benefits of proper breastfeeding. These volunteers also help local anganwadi or female childcare workers provide information on health and nutrition for older children and mothers.

Now, women in Dular villages are three times more likely than other women to exclusively breastfeed newborns and avoid traditional practices about colostrum.

The percentage of underweight children is much lower, too. The programme has been so successful that plans are afoot to expand the Dular network across Jharkhand. UNICEF and the Government of India also started a three-year project in 2009 to further extend it to 22 million children across India. 
Parents and health care workers are learning lifesaving childhood diarrhoea treatment methods with oral rehydration salts and zinc tablets.

• UNICEF supports efforts to distribute iron folic acid supplements to adolescent girls at all schools in the state in an attempt to control anaemia.

• The Weekly Iron Folic Supplementation (WIFS) Programme reaches 3.5 million adolescent girls (both in school and out of school) in all districts through schools and anganwadi centres.

• Vitamin A supplementation for children aged one to five is helping to prevent blindness and disease.

• Families and children are learning about proper hygiene and toilet building through schools, community and government initiatives supported by UNICEF.

• UNICEF supports campaigns to promote handwashing and provides kits to test water for arsenic and microbiological contamination.
Child Protection and Education .

• UNICEF is supporting a plan to eradicate child marriage and human trafficking. Its emphasis and concentration on expansion education opportunities in the state, particularly for poor, tribal and female students, is aimed at this.

(Ranchi based Dr. Sircar is a very uncommon physician whose love for the people has always inspired him to dare even the most inclement and rough terrains in the mission of healthcare. His Face Book friends have immensely benefitted from his postings on related to health and Nature.)

Sabyasachi’s arrest is no arrest of Maoism

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak
Maoism is a political concept that wants elimination of socio-economic inequality and is considered aggressive voice against exploitation of the voiceless. There is a striking similarity between the Maoists  and the State in dealing with the enemies. The State uses weapons sans any qualms to save the land from geographical aggression in the process of which arrest and death may hit any of the soldiers; Maoists use weapons without qualms, as and when necessary, to save the people from economic exploitation in the process of which they dare the jails and death. Therefore, people, who never subscribe to violence, regard the Maoists as political sentinels. So, arrest or elimination of any of them would not lead to arrest of Maoism, exactly as patriotism never declines or dies when a soldier of India gets captured or killed by the enemy on the border.

Therefore, Sabyasachi Panda’s arrest has ignited massive mass attention.

The so-called mainstream media as a whole is busy in projecting his arrest as a great victory for the State, when religious bigots that support societal inequality have started asking the judiciary to exterminate him through capital punishment. The Chief Minister has put his praise for the Police over his arrest on records in the Assembly, and ruling party backbenchers have taken the opportunity to show how active are they, by hurling abusive innuendos at the leader of opposition whose response to the CM’s statement was that, instead of celebrating Sabyasachi’s arrest, the State Government should concentrate on irradiation of poverty, the issue that had given the arrested Maoist leader his mission and strength, though the way of violence that he had allegedly adopted was inappropriate in the eyes of law.

We congratulate the leader of opposition Hon’ble Narasingha Mishra for his wise words that only a conscience keeper of the people could have told the Assembly.

We recall how eminent persons from various streams, known better for their allegiance to  Gandhism, such as Smt. Annapurna Maharana (Cuttack), Smt. Sumitra Choudhury (Cuttack), Smt. Krushna Mohanty (Anugul),Sri Rabi Roy (Cuttack), Md. Baji (Nawarangpur), Sri Ratan Das (Gunupur), Sri Bhabani Charan Patnaik (Bhubaneswar), Dr. Bhagaban Prakask (New Delhi) and Prof. Radhamohan (Bhubaneswar), while appealing him in October 2012 to shun violence, had put on records their high appreciation for his exemplary fight to emancipate the wretchedly poor and Dalit people of the State.

By arresting him, the cause he stands for cannot be curbed. Maoism cannot be arrested.

As we have seen, it is the Maoists ,who, by their aggressive stance, make the capitalist governments provide funds for welfare of the poorest of the poor, as seen in allocation of special and dedicated funds for the Maoist dominated districts by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, to whom the Maoists were “left viruses”.

Had there been no Sabyasachis, there would never have evolved welfare schemes like the NREGA. Let me quote a 2010 BBC report to show how these schemes are generated by Maoist activism. It had highlighted what an executive of the scheme had said in these words: “NREGA is the only way forward to take on the Maoists. This is nothing about winning hearts and minds. Its only about giving people work before the rebels come in and convince them that they are a better option than the state”.

Against this backdrop, Sabyasachian issue needs impassioned analysis and recognition as a political issue. His crimes, as alleged, deserve to be defined as political crimes.

True, the police have instituted many cases against him. But, Police cases do not make him a criminal.

Police in the eyes of the Supreme Court

According to the Supreme Court of India, vide Judgment delivered on July 2, 2014 in Criminal Appeal No.1277 of 2014, “the Police has not come out of its colonial image despite six decades of independence; it is largely considered as a tool of harassment, oppression and surely not considered a friend of public”.

There was not a single freedom fighter including Gandhiji, whom the Police had not projected as criminals and not prosecuted for violence and sedition. That “colonial image” of police, according to Justice Chandramauli Kr. Prasad and Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose of the Supreme Court of India, as quoted above, “has not” changed “despite six decades of independence”.
The media must take note of this.

And, Media …….

Instead of boasting of mainstream tag, the media should adhere to professional ethics, and media persons, instead of acting mindless orchestrators, should refuse to dance to the tune of the media-owning class in denigrating Sabyasachi and the patriotic public should refuse to be swayed away by the versions of administration, which the compradors mostly control; and leave the issue to impartial wisdom of the Judiciary only. And, the Judiciary should ensure that Sabyasachi is not mistreated by the police when in custody, as many apprehend.

India has already experienced

Rare are the persons who suffer for the cause of the victims of socio-economic exploitation and inequality. And for every society, way to emancipation is not paved only by non-violence, as India has already experienced in her struggle for freedom. Maoism shall not be stymied by arrest of Sabyasachi and suchlike; it can end only when the State ends socio-economiv inequality. Two steps are urgent in this regard. One, elimination of caste-supremacism ; and, two, imposition of ceiling on private wealth with retrospective effect to tally with the land ceiling, Indian farmers have been subjected to.

Death made her Immortal

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak
Life certainly ends. But, some of us live after death. Society gets from them endless inspiration always.

Smt. Shailabala Pujari is one such person. She has defeated death on her demise and merging with the elements, has become omnipresent.
She was the most lively and brave person I have ever seen, next only to my mother.

She was terminally ill and knew that the time was not distant when the new phase she was to enter would be called death. People are mostly afraid of death. But she was never.

When I had met her in her Bhubaneswar residence, she was in winning smiles, though what others call ‘pain’ was trying to overwhelm her. I was astonished by her composure and personality that was in clear control over the pain.

The last time I saw her was when Additional Solicitor General of India Ms. Indira Jaisingh received felicitations from her hand at Bhubaneswar. She was in the wheel chair and Ms. Jaisingh had come down from the podium to her to receive the same. Except being limited to the wheel chair, she was her usual self of limitless confidence and composure.

Indian wisdom has got expression in the words of Sanatsujat saying “Mrityunastiti” meaning there is no death. Life gets a new form by death, he says.

Shailabala has entered into a new form.

With journalist Deviprasanna Nayak, I had been to Rourkela to pay respects to her new form. And, as we were coming back today, Devi asked, “are the clouds in tears”? I kept mum. He looked at the rain-drenched high way, and resigned to silence again. The car was moving ahead.

 

Newspaper is not a private matter

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Eminent journalist Prasanta Patnaik, whose column ‘Trutiya Nayana’ had given tremendous credibility and readership to the Oriya daily ‘Pragativadi’, was embarrassed by the owner/operator of the paper to such extent that he has declared not to contribute his column any more to that media organization.

“My column will not appear any more in Pragativadi”, he has notified through social media Facebook.

Pragativadi had begun with begged for financial support from the public. I was the first man to have donated Rs.15/- to the fund for its publication, when its founder Pradyumna Bal had not even been able to print a receipt book for the donations/advance subscription. But his zeal was remarkable, as he was in forefront of agitation against Mrs. Indira Gandhi’s misrule.

That I was the first man to have donated to its funds was witnessed by late revolutionary Manmohan Mishra and my elder brotherly Journalist Ramahari Mishra.

Let me elaborate.

I got a post card from Pradyuman Bal inviting me to a meeting of like-minded friends to be held at Jhanjirimangala in Cuttack to discuss how to develop a media weapon to fight Mrs Gandhi’s misrule. I reached his place at 5 PM on the appointed day. Rabi Das, who, later had become editor of Pragativadi, had escorted me to the inner courtyard of the house, where Manmohan babu was sitting on a cotton ‘Dari (a sort of very coarse carpet) with Pradyumna Bal. After about 15 minutes the 2nd man to attend the meeting – journalist Ramahari Mishra, then with Amrit Bazar Patrika at Cuttack – appeared. Manmohan babu kept us engaged by narrating his experience in jail, from where he had come on parole and with details of how Bhagavat Behera’s wife had sent personal letters to jailers to know of whereabouts of her husband and about his health. No third man had arrived till 7 PM. I had other works to attend. As Pradyumna babu had, in the meantime, told of his intention to bring out Pragativadi as a fortnightly, I had asked him about how much amount of money he proposes for annual subscription and how many people he had invited to the meeting, to which he had replied that he had posted a thousand post cards, and, if 1000 annual subscribers could be enlisted against Rs. 15/- each, publication of the fortnightly would have no constraints. I gave him that amount and begged leave, as we assumed that fear for police might have stymied the invitees, who, on personal contact, may have no hesitation to pay their subscription in advance, the amount being so very small. Then Ramahari babu also gave the amount and came out with me, as staying for more time there could have posed difficulties in getting a rickshaw for Tulasipur, where he was staying.

When Pragativadi was published, Pradyumna babu had never sent me a copy. Aware of the character of politicians in general, I didn’t mind. He, however, remained a friend till his last days.

This unmemorable experience is recalled just to say that, the paper ‘Pragativadi’ owes its origin to donations of unacknowledged paltry sums of money by the public of Orissa.

By embarrassing Prasanta Patnaik as aforesaid, the present owner of the paper has behaved as if the paper was created out of his family’s private property.

The income of a newspaper is the byproduct of contributions of the journalists, because the paper is basically a journalistic venture. It earns subscriptions, because journalists put the information that people want. It earns from advertisements, because the works of the journalists gives it a readership that the advirtisers want to reach. Pragativadi is no exception.

And, if Pragativadi got a readership, Prasanta Patnaik’s contributions thereto is simply unfathomable.

Its acceptability to public was for the first time discernible when its pages had in-depth reports on the plights of rural reporter Naba Kishore Mohapatra on whom the rising mafia had taken revenge for their exposure by perpetrating gang-rape till death on his wife Chhabirani in the days of J. B. Patnaik’s first phase of Chief-Ministership. Prasanta Patnaik had contributed those reports with necessary pictorial in-put.

And, for having, thereby, enhanced the credibility of Pragativadi while exposing JB’s misrule that extinguished Chhabirani, Orissa had witnessed, how eventually Prasanta Patnaik was thrown out of his official residence.

The same newspaper, in hands of the heirs of Pradyumna Bal has misbehaved with the same Prasanta Patnaik, after being established as a major paper with his help, is something, which no nastiness can ever surpass.

Dear Samahit Bal, the paper’s editor, I have tried to contact you on this issue; but perhaps time plays the tricks. However, please note, newspaper may be a private property, but not at all a private matter. Therefore, we condemn the way Prasanta babu is embarrassed, and as a friend of your late lamented father, expect that you shall amend yourself.