Dr. Debi Prasanna Pattanayak’s new book on language released

Famous linguist Dr. Debi Prasanna Pattanayak’s new book ‘Language and Cultural Diversity’ has made a hit with bibliophiles.

It was released on 17 September 2014 by the Chief Minister of Orissa, Naveen Patnaik, who lauded Dr. Pattanayak’s constant emphasis on initiation of education to children in their mother tongue as that only improves children’s self confidence and leads to internal educational efficiency.

Dr. Pattanayak, already decorated with Padmashree, has been recommended by the State Government for Padma Bhusan award this year.

Son of famous freedom fighter Madhu Sudan Pattanayak, he belongs by birth to Tigiria, the famous former Princely State where the scripture of what is now known as Odissi Dance – Abhinaya Darpana Prakash – as well as India’s one of the only two noted scriptures on warfare – Veera Sarvaswa – were authored. The  palm leaf manuscripts of both the scriptures are now in Visva Bharati University at Shantiniketan of West Bengal, along with hundreds of palm leaf manuscripts written by Tigiria’s people of literary excellence in the bygone princely days, which, Dr. Pattanayak had taken from the Tigiria Palace to enrich the famous Central University with its first library of ancient manuscripts.

Prafulla Jha, veteran voice of the voiceless, is released from Jail after seven years

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Veteran journalist Pafulla Jha who headed the Chhattisgarh State Bureau of Dainik Bhaskar, was arrested on January 22, 2008 under charges of ‘sedition’, which in police parlance stands for sympathy for the Naxals.

He was sentenced to 7 years that he spent in the jail with his head high, though that imperiled the economy of his family. His son was also jailed as his collaborator in the crime of ‘waging war against the nation’ and his daughter had to give up her Ph.D. midway in dire straits.

Yet, journalistic mana that manifests only in being the voice of the voiceless stayed his forte as he suffered helplessly behind the bars, with fellow journalists too pusillanimous to raise a collective voice against tha police, that had confessed that Jha was no danger as a Maoists, but claimed that he was booked as such to “teach others a lesson”.

His only noted offense was his alleged contributions to Maoist literature, when admittedly; he had done some translations from a special edition of the Economic and Political Weekly on Nepal Maoists.

In the annals of suffering of scribes for betterment of the society, Jha shall remain an epitome of working class consciousness, which, for all time to come, shall continue to inspire every journalist who shall have the affinity to journalistic concern for the working class.

Welcome Mr. Jha to your own world of freedom that a tyrant State can never keep suppressed for all time to come.

Media Matters: We are more confused by Supreme Court Orders

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Even as rich media is rendering Indian democracy poor, the Supreme Court of India has asked for a regulatory authority on visual media, because it feels, display of a dead body from morning to night was irksome.

“Have you ever seen foreign channels showing dead bodies?” Justice Sudhansu Jyoti Mukhopadhaya asked on Thursday. Even after the 9/11 attacks in New York not one dead body was shown on the visual media including the recent beheading of the American and British journalists, he observed while the bench comprising him and Justice Prafulla Chandra Pant wanted Additional Solicitor General P.S.Patwalia to get back to it on the suggested regulatory body within a period of four weeks (IANS).

The regulatory body thus mooted by the Apex Court should be an effective body and not like the Press Council of India. (Ibid).

This puts us to a situation of confusion.

When the Press Council was created by a law framed by the Parliament, collective legislative wisdom had deliberately denied it punitive powers, keeping in mind the sense of responsibility that the Press must be inherently possessing.

Till now, in adjudicating the complaints against and by the Press for violation of ethics and for violation of the freedom of the Press, the purpose for which the PCI is created, it has not done anything wrong and its orders are not seen violated and/or dishonored by any in the country.

Was the collective wisdom wrong?

So, by requiring a separate regulatory body, which should be an effective body and not like the PCI, is the Supreme Court not conveying us that the collective legislative wisdom behind the Press Council Act 1978 in the aftermath of Emergency that had curtailed the freedom of Press, was a misguided, misconceived wisdom of the Parliament?

True, the PCI, by virtue of its scope under the Act, has no direct jurisdiction over television media, as by 1978, the country had no experience with TV journalism. Yet, I must say, television comes within the purview of its extended jurisdiction; because, even though it is created for “maintaining and improving the standards of newspapers and news agencies in India”, the PCI is created for “the purpose of preserving the freedom of the Press”. And, to fulfill this purpose, the Act has given it the entitlement to take steps to encourage the growth of a sense of responsibility and public service among all those engaged in the profession of journalism, under Sec. 13 (2) (d) of the Act.

And, electronic media, including television media belong to “profession of journalism”.

So, the PCI has its jurisdiction on television journalism.

Norms of Journalistic Conduct

On the other hand, ‘Norms of Journalistic Conduct’ laid down under the PCI Regulations also address to the television journalists. In matter of Photo Journalism to which television belongs, it has been said that the “Pictures should not reflect anything that is obscene, vulgar or offensive to good public taste” (point 6 under the head of do’s). Displaying dead bodies is discouraged by saying, “do not show mangled corpses or such other images as cause revulsion or terror” (point 3 under the heading of don’ts).

As such, the revulsive display of the dead body all through the day that made Justice Mukhopadhya say, “I can’t read my SLP with TV on”, is also subjected to the Norms of Journalistic Conduct’ formulated and promulgated by PCI.

Therefore another regulating body for electronic visual media with prosecuting powers will not only subject the Press to multifarious Laws, but also affect the scheme of the Press Council evolved out of Press Commission recommendations and Parliamentary wisdom.

Deadly blows to democracy not noticed

We are worried because, the urge for creation of a regulatory body for electronic visual media has come only from revulsion generated by a day long display of a dead body, but not from any reaction to deadly blows television journalism has given to Indian democracy.

As in Atal Behari Vajpayee’s scheme for fetching votes in 2004, so also in Narendra Modi’s scheme of acquiring power in 2014, the electronic visual media has prostituted journalism.

The same TV journalists who were spearheading the campaign for BJP in 2004 were also the forefront players in the misleading game for BJP in 2014.

If any law may be proposed to help the country get rid of harmful mischief of electronic visual journalism, it is essential to first find out how 2014 role of TV journalists like Arnav Goswami had the same genre of journalism used by BJP in 2004.

When the 2004 experience had forced us to write “Free Press? Think Afresh” , Mr. Sekhar Gupta, in a signed article in Indian Express on May 8, 2004 had to confess, “This election was fought more in the media than in the streets” with television being “the new electoral battleground”.

Inquiry needed to reach the root

So, if the electronic visual media is to be tamed to serve Indian democracy, it is necessary for the country to go to the root of media anarchy generated by mainstream television journalists during elections -2004 and elections – 2014 and from the premise of such determination, to think about how to bring in a change.

It would be better, therefore, for the Supreme Court to appoint a Judicial Commission of Inquiry  or create a separate bench of its own for the specific purpose of determining the politico-mafia connection of television journalism practiced by those who project themselves as national channels in context of General Elections in last two decades, particularly in 2004 and 2014 and then to promote the idea of a separate effective body for regulating visual media. Otherwise, the exercise may turn into barren wordy acrobatics, with nobody to care a tinker damn for the same.

Unless the visual media is salvaged from the rich and the mafia, no law to be framed can make it tamed.

And, unless ceiling on private property is enforced, there shall be no last limit for acquiring wealth by any means.

If accumulation of limitless wealth is not legally stopped, no law can, in reality, stop electronic visual media, owned and controlled by the wealthy, from playing any havoc they want to keep the general public acquiesced into what they design, as that only ensures transformation of their status as free citizens to subjects of the lords of plutocracy.

The country is saturated with Acts and Rules. And the citizens are drowned in the labyrinth they create. Before getting another Act framed in the area of Press, the background of anarchic conduct of electronic visual media should first be studied in depth. We have to first get the answer to why the television media is so irresponsibly working.

Without diagnosis, treatment may be more harmful.

Bar cannot mar the manners of Law: Motherland is more important than a man

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

It is sad that Orissa High Court Bar Association has resorted to cease-work in protest against arrest of Advocate General Asok Mohanty in incumbency till summoned to answer CBI on his connection with chit fund fraudster Pradeep Sethy.

In the breaking animadversion on the subject that came to public attention under its caption ‘Judicial Enquiry Essential to determine if Justice Laxmikant Mohapatra did not act a conduit for a chit fund mafia‘, for the first time in orissa’s news media views, much ahead of emergence of CBI on the scene, Mohanty was shown as a vertex in the triangle of a scam over a CDA plot, which finally has landed him in judicial custody after rejection of his bail petition.

His preliminary confrontation with suspicion on his property deal with the chit fund cheat, subsequent formal arrest by CBI, interrogation, production before the CBI court, further interrogation under remand and restaging in judicial custody on rejection of his heard bail petition are sequences logically developed under the manners of law.

Hence the Bar Association protest against CBI action is nothing but an attempt to mar the manners of law.

The striking similarity between ruling party MP Bhartruhari Mahtab and the High Court Bar in matter of condemning the CBI over arrest of Mohanty is indicative of two purposes. One, as in case of Mahtab, to demoralize the CBI and confuse the general public to cultivate an escape route for Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, so that people get diverted from catching him in his very own cocoon of corruption and misrule; and two, as in case of lawyers, to exceed each other in pleasing the CM in a yet undefined design to grab the Advocate General post as it is bound to be filled up soon, where the CM’s preference and prerogative is de facto final.

Alert people of Orissa should take note of it and do everything to encourage the CBI to bring to books all the traitors.

No man is more important than the motherland.

Mahtab mustn’t be allowed to demoralize the CBI and to eclipse Judicial mind

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak Cuttack MP, Bhartruhari Mahtab belongs to BJD, the party of sycophants, known loudmouths of which are now in fidgets over chit fund cheating. To them the CBI enquiry portends incurable political debacle.

When alter ego of the BJD government – Advocate General Asok Mohanty, incumbent till summoned by CBI in chit fund scam matter – is in jail custody pending trial due to location of his dubious deal with Chit Fund fraudster Pradeep Sethy, it is Mahtab who has used TV channels to instigate the people against Mohanty’s arrest.

He claims that Mohanty is too honest to be investigated into, according to his personal knowledge about Mohanty. His personal knowledge has no legal standing.

If he appears before the concerned court as a ‘defense-witness’ in support of Mohanty, his assertion may be tested through cross-examination and consequent court verdict.

But when Mohanty is in court custody and the court has taken cognizance of his offense, and his remand to CBI having come to the verge of end he is either to be granted bail or sent to the jail, a ruling party MP declaring that Mohanty is honest and the CBI should not have arrested him, is nothing but ruling party’s attempt to demoralize the CBI and to eclipse free and fair application of judicial mind and therefore, contrived to influence the CBI judge.

Mahtab should immediately be taken to task for this mischief,

We celebrate the signature

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

We celebrate of being one with every Indian as Mangalayaan puts the nation’s signature on Mars.

Thanks all whose totality is ISRO, thanks on our behalf; and on behalf of our future generations. Amidst all the debacles caused by almost all wings of democracy, this unique achievement helps us stand erect with our heads very high.

Chief Minister’s link with Chit Fund as suggested by a Picture needs CBI Probe

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

 

This picture with annotation in Oriya has come to my hand from poet and socio-political activist Shankar Parida. Many of his FaceBook friends might also have got it.

It shows that Chit Fund accused Ranjan was an integral part of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s inner circle, whose prominent presence was a guiding factor behind filing of Naveen Patnaik’s nomination papers for the post of BJD President.

He is seen, stamp in hand, authenticating the nomination.

The picture is self-explanatory and massively suggestive. May the CBI take the cue and zoom in on the Chief Minister, as delay may give him contrive ways to escape.

Former IPS officer and scholar par-excellence Arun Kumar Upadhyay has posted a comment in chit fund related story in ORISSA MATTERS that I am going to quote below:

“Supreme court had given order for CBI investigation when records were produced that Artha-tattva had given 6 free flats to the then Police Commissioner Sri B K Sharma who is now ADGP Crime branch and investigating Chit fund scam. Police Commissioner could not allow this without matching flats to the then DGP Sri M M Prahraj who has got legal impunity like High court judge after retirement as Member of State Administrative Tribunal in ending moments of UPA Govt. But the original cause of CBI inquiry is not being looked into and officers leader combine is trapping only Ashok Mohanty who had taken a single house on payment. Ashok Mohanty also must be aware,but can he tell the secrets? He must be under assurance that matter will be pacified after a short period”.

Mr. Upadhyay’s note is as apposite as pertinent.

Who but the Chief Minister is GodFather of these officers? RTI activist Jayant Kumar Das has sent me chilling details of one of these two officers that makes me infer that the offense attributed to him could not have been carried out or gone unpunished without the blessings of the chief minister on his head.

The CBI is doing discernibly excellent in penetrating into the felony. It must have drawn its roadmap to reach the crux.

But, unless the Chief Minister is immediately brought into investigation, the nexus of the offenders is so unfathomably intricate that where, when and in which layer what evidence shall get lost may be totally impossible to locate.

The Chief Minister may be immediately grilled on his connection with Ranjan.

CBI arrests former Advocate General Asok Mohanty; Investigation urgent into role of Justice Laxmikant Mohapatra

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Amongst all other Orissan Media, ORISSA MATTERS was the first to dissect the intricate connection of Justice Laxmikant Mohapatra and Advocate Asok Mohanty with chit fund mafia Pradeep Sethy. The posting, dated July 22, was captioned:

Judicial Enquiry Essential to determine if Justice Laxmikant Mohapatra did not act a conduit for a chit fund mafia

Neither such emphasis was laid in social media nor in any print media till then. Alok Jena’s case in the Supreme Court was not having this matter in particular at the crux. Jayant Kumar Das’s input pregnant with information obtained under RTI was in disarray. We had to conduct a bit research before preferring the posting. Jayant babu had dug out the core information on which we had to improve upon. The CBI was yet to step in. So, I had, in the July 22 posting, insisted upon Judicial enquiry into role of Justice Mohapatra to find out if being a High Court Judge he had acted a conduit for Pradeep Sethy.

When under orders of the Supreme Court, CBI commenced its investigation, Mohanty quitted the post of Advocate General about two month of exposure in these pages and faced the sleuths the next day.We insisted that he and Justice Mohapatra being two vertices of the same triangle of offense formed with Pradeep Sethy, both should be subjected to investigation at the same time. The article was captioned:

Advocate General quits and faces CBI; Justice Laxmikant Mohapatra be probed now

Now as CBI has officially arrested Mohanty, and Sethy is already in judicial custody, the left out vertex Justice Laxmikant Mohapatra shall have to be probed into. Without this, the probe cannot be completed.

We believe, the CBI must have taken up with the appropriate authorities – the Supreme Court, the President – for necessary clearance to bring Justice Mohapatra to its investigational jurisdiction. Without any prejudice thereto, we may say that it would be better for Justice Mohapatra to voluntarily state if he has not acted a conduit for chit fund cheat Pradeep Sethy.

It is really disgusting to wait for action when a judge is an object of suspicion in a felony of this type.

Supremo syndrome yet again takes the toll: Ghadei gone, others alarmed

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Instant expulsion of veteran Prafulla Ghadei by BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik after a petal of his independent mind got published in the Sambad, is the latest evidence of how Orissa’s ruling party is afflicted with congenital fragility. Nobody in this party is safe and sure of continuing with this outfit, as its autocratic boss has no respect for his colleagues’ contributions to the organization that he heads. All members of BJD are servants to him, as if born to serve him like the Paika people of former Rajas. He is the ‘owner’. All others in the party are his slaves with no freedom to criticize him. The State knows that BJD members are sycophants; but for Naveen, they are nothing but factotums, ordained to dance to his tunes, required to act according to his whims and caprices. Otherwise, Ghadei’s life in BJD could not have so contemptuously extinguished in blatant disregard to democratic norms supposed to have primacy in a political party.

Ghadei, a seven-times MLA with several innings in the State cabinet was, like a putrified potato, thrown out of the party he had co-founded, without even any chance to explain his position, on September 20.

The supremo syndrome has yet again taken the toll as his alarmed colleagues stand silent onlookers exactly as the goats in the slaughter house stand looking helplessly at the butcher’s blade after one of them gets beheaded.

The only countable voice heard after Ghadei’s expulsion came from Minister Dr. Damodar Raut who defined the action as unquestionable being an act of divine power (prerogative) of the party ‘supremo’.

When Dr. Raut had been ejected out of the Cabinet along with Bijayashree Rautray, Nagen Pradhan and Balabhadra Majhi under whims and caprices of Naveen Patnaik in May 2006, and none of his co-passangers in the BJD train had extended any support to him and/or uttered a single word against extermination of every iota of collective identity in the party, might be, to Dr. Raut that was Naveen’s divine power in display, we in these pages had pointed out that, in a political party that rules over the State, internal democracy should not have given such way to autocratic overlordship.

Similarly when Prafulla Ghadei, Prafulla Samal, Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak, Pratap Jena and Puspendra Singhdeo were whimsically dismissed from the Council of Ministers in 2012, and their colleagues in the party stood silent onlookers, we had again warned them all that ruling party should have collectively decided who should be dropped from and who should be inducted into the cabinet, so that democracy could be saved from being affected by supremo syndrome.

BJD members have never pondered over this.

It is an irony that Ministers like Debiprasanna Mishra, Bijayshree Rautray, Pradeep Moharathy, Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak, Rabinarayan Nanda et all, who have already had the ignominious experience of whimsical expulsion from the party as and when necessary to save the skin of the chief minister, have no qualms in ignoring the dastardly act of autocratic assault on a founder of the party, who had thought it prudent to play no hypocrisy with the people in matter of management of the state under his party that they have mandated to rule.

What Ghadei did do to be thrown out of BJD, the party he co-founded?

He simply adhered to his conscience as a ruling party politician and to tell the people where from comes the misrule, so that, collective application of mind may manifest to save the State from the whirlpool of corruption, scams and scandals and everything that harms democratic norms. His words to Sambad were plain confession of where the shoe pinches.

We are depicting here below a few excerpts from the interview with comprehensible rendition thereof in English for our visitors.

CAG and investigating sleuths are almost confirming the correctness of our years-long observation that the state is perishing under misrule.

Why the Chief Minister is failing to give a good governance? Sambad had asked. This is because, Naveen babu is in the hands of a coterie, Ghadei had replied. The excerpt-

(Even now, Naveen babu is in the hands of a coterie. Pandian group grabs everything. Now Naveen babu is under possession of K.P.P.P. Kalpataru-Pandian-Pravakaran-Pinaki combine is K.P.P.P. Bijay Patnaik, Arun Sarangi are also with these fellows.)

Why the coterie? Is the chief minister facing a void, not getting proper advice from his cabinet/party colleagues? Is BJD not collectively managed? The interviewer’s mind must have pondered over, before asking whether or not the ruling party runs democratically. Ghadei’s answer along with the question of Sambad is here below –

(Where is democracy in the Party? This is just a single-man party. When we are in the party, can everything be divulged here?In the party, where the meetings, where discussions?) – Ghadei rued when asked to present the picture of democracy, if any, in the party and mode of its implementation.

The Sambad interviewer was apparently eager to know if involvement of many leaders was too overwhelming for the CM to act diligently. Ghadei attributed lack of diligence on part of the CM to absence of proper advice.

(He himself doesn’t do anything.whosoever now enjoys his proximity doesn’t give proper advice. What advice the thieves shall give? Pandian Phandian are there to loot the party.They will loot, what could be said of that!)

But he is the Chief Minister. He must be seeing the files. Should the loot not be coming to his eyes? – Sambad asked and recorded Ghadei’s response like this – Ghadei said:

(He does not see anything. It is a wonder of India. A man does not understand anything, does not say of anything, yet he is a Chief Minister! People have tolerated this, because it is Orissa. He is getting the support, as because, there is no opposition.)

How is he in power for so long, the interviewer wondered. Ghadei said, by maneuvering the Congress High Command.

We have, in these pages, exposed how the Congress High Command has been helping Naveen stay in power by sabotaging the provincial leadership. Ghadei’s statement corroborates our observation, as he has divulged how through Ahmed Patel Naveen has been using the central leadership of Congress in weakening the provincial congress

In the regime of Naveen Patnaik, Orissa has become a grazing ground of greedy non-Oriyas even as its natural resources and purses of its people are being looted unhindered. This happens in a State when the the government as well as the ruling party is headed by a man of notority. Ghadei considered it prudent to warn his colleagues as well as the people in the following words:

(Naveen Patnaik is an expert in causing cleavage amongst party members, in taking revenge and in damaging whosoever in the party is disadvantageous to his design.)

Why is he not changing for the better? Sambad asked. Ghadei said:

(“He does not do anything himself. Always depends on others. Earlier was dependent on Pyari babu. Now in illusion. Now-a-days mentally, physically dull. A handful of traders have taken him to their control.)

These most relevant words of Ghadei should have helped the party he co-founded have a serious introspection, had there been any semblance of respect for democracy left in it. But he has been expelled by Naveen Patnaik, exactly as a pet goat could have been slaughtered by the owner.

How congenitally fragile are the members of the ruling party of Orissa!

Laxmanrekha for Journalists: Nothing but Rubbish

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Currently, and curiously after skirmish between Orissa’s Revenue Minister and Media persons on September 15 in the State Secretariat in the Minister’s chamber, there is a hogwash, apparently promoted by powers that be, that, the journalists in their attempt to get information should not cross the ‘Laxmanrekha’.

Even a senior fraternal brother – whom I adore – in his natural desire to see the charisma of Press gets no more affected, has added a bit force to this hogwash, by innocently opining that the ‘Laxmanrekha’ should be adhered to.

As it silently upsets the distinction of Press, I would like first to reflect on ‘Laxmanrekha’.

What is ‘Laxmanrekha’?

It is a machination of strangulation of human rights. A contrivance of a way to restrict freedom.

Let us go to its root.

In denying Sita the right to move freely even in the premises of their cottage in the Jungle, her husband’s younger brother Laxman of the epic Ramayana had drawn three lines in his arrow on the soil, saying, “you can come thus far, but cannot go any farther”. This is known as Laxmanrekha.

No journalist is supposed to be a Sita and the so-called Laxmanrekha has no applicability to journalism.

People in a democracy have the right to be informed and the journalists are duty bound to serve that ‘right’. So, ‘Laxmanrekha’ does not fit into their scheme.

Whosoever of the journalists favor the concept of ‘Laxmanrekha’, argue that, media persons should end their endeavor to elicit answers when a minister, a political leader or a public servant refuses to respond to their queries. ‘Right to silence’ as legalized in Nandini Satpathy Vrs P.L. Dani case, perhaps instigates them to advance such suggestion.

This is not acceptable

This legal phenomenon is relevant to public prosecution, but cannot be acceptable in matter of public information and the people’s right to information. Article 20(3) of Constitution of India has no applicability to journalists endeavor to obtain information for the public.

The way the country has been forced to change into a plutocracy, and the way political leaders have become lawbreakers in rising numbers taking advantage of readiness of many in the executive government to go to any extent to satisfy their avarice, and the way India is crumbling into “Two Indias” in terms of highest judicial wisdom expressed in observation of the Supreme Court – a ‘small India’ of the ultra-high-net-worth-individuals counting at best a couple of hundreds and the ‘large India’ of the wretchedly poor innumerable Indians – and, amongst many other syndromes, the way implementation of labor laws and other welfare Acts are declining, and the way welfare programs are being hijacked by the rich for benefit of the rich in which the politico-executive nexus is helping them; it is time for the journalists to be assertive, to refuse to be brow-beaten, to side with the poor and disadvantaged, to be the voice of the voiceless, to ignore the functionaries’ pleas of privacy, to elicit information from them for the public at any cost; and for this, to ignore the concept of ‘thus far, no farther’ must be a must for the journalists; because. it is incumbent upon them to stay sentinels of the people.

Be it appreciated that a sentinel never bothers about restrictive laws in his act of safeguarding the master i.e. in this case the people of this country, who are so betrayed and so severely jeopardized by strengthening of plutocracy.

No journalist should, therefore, feel any qualms in adopting any available method to elicit information from escaping politicians and public functionaries as people have the right to be informed; and in this lies the key to emancipation.