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Opposition’s uproar continues on Odisha schoolteacher murder case, CM refuses to blink
Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan slammed the CM for not asking the controversial minister to resign
Questioning the silence of chief minister Naveen Patnaik on the issue of alleged proximity of Biju Janata Dal (BJD) minister Dibya Shankar Mishra with the accused in the Mamita Meher murder case, Union education and skill development minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Friday slammed the Odisha CM for not asking the controversial minister to resign.
“Leaders across many parties have taken moral responsibility to leave their posts whenever they have come under a cloud. Naveen himself has asked many of his ministers to resign in the past but the CM has set a new tradition for the (junior) home minister,” Pradhan said while taking potshots at the CM.
Within hours, BJD general secretary (organisation) Pranab Prakash Das sprang to the minister’s defence daring Pradhan to bring proof before the police and court against Mishra, who continues to face the combined onslaught of opposition that seeks his scalp over his alleged complicity in the Mamita Meher murder case. “You have yourself conceded that Naveen has not spared anyone however influential one may be for wrongdoings. People of Odisha know the CM continues to do so,” said Das.
The BJD leader’s defence of the IAF pilot-turned-minister in the murder case of Meher, a 26-year-old woman schoolteacher in a non-descript English medium school of Kalahandi district last month by the school managing committee president Gobind Sahu, is only among the several such brazenness shown by the regional party. After remaining silent for about a week after the arrest of Gobind Sahu, the regional party has not just refused to drop Mishra from the ministry but chosen to take the attacks head-on. The case may have turned murkier with the parents of the victim alleging that a sex racket was operating in the campus where the school was located, for the time being, the party has decided not to buckle down.
Though opposition leaders Bhakta Charan Das of Congress and Bijoy Mohapatra of BJP alleged that Mishra tried to broker a deal between the victim and Sahu at his residence in Chhatisgarh’s capital of Raipur, the BJD has refused to blink. Opposition BJP and Congress have stepped up attack targetting at least half a dozen state ministers with eggs and resorting to bandhs hoping that the incident would dent the party’s women vote bank but a defiant BJD, early this month, made the minister sit on the dais with the chief minister at a public programme in Kalahandi district.
The alleged involvement of Mishra in the killing of a 26-year-old school teacher in Kalahandi district ahead of panchayat polls would have been enough to drop him from the ministry considering that the panchayat polls are less than three months away.
In his last 21 years of rule, Patnaik has dropped many of his ministers at the slightest pretext but what may have led to BJD’s hardening stance is the inability of the opposition to make him pay the political cost in all such cases in the past be it the alleged gangrape of a Dalit girl in Koraput in 2017 or Itishree Pradhan murder case of 2013.
“The BJD never had to pay a political cost for any cases involving women safety in last two decades and the fault entirely lies with the opposition. The opposition remained divided and never could take such issues into their logical conclusion which perhaps convinced the CM that all such cases would not make a dent in the party’s political fortunes,” said political analyst Gyana Ranjan Swain. Political analyst Rabi Das said a certain arrogance of power has crept into the current regime which has resulted in the government resisting any move to get rid of controversial partymen.
In January this year, law minister Pratap Jena was among the 13 persons accused of killing a 75-year-old BJP leader and his 80-year-old associate in Salepur area of Cuttack district. After Jena’s name was dropped from the police charge sheet, the son of the victim moved a trial court seeking re-investigation. The court on Saturday again ordered that the telephonic call details record of two of the associates of Jena be submitted to the court.
“Twenty years ago, Patnaik would probably have sacked Jena. But now he can’t do that as sacking him would mean weakening party in Cuttack district,” said Das.
In the 80s and late 90s, the Congress government, headed by JB Patnaik, attracted brickbats over poor law and order. The Chhabirani gangrape case of the 80s and the Anjana Mishra molestation and gangrape case of the late 90s perpetually tarred the image of the JB Patnaik government with people viewing Congress as a party that did not care about women’s safety. But in the last two decades, there have been several cases of sexual violence against women which opposition parties have tried to make an issue out of, but nothing has managed to sully Naveen Patnaik’s image.
The biggest such case was the murder of Itishree Pradhan, a non-formal teacher in a school in Rayagada district, who died in 2013 after allegedly being set afire by an unidentified miscreant on school premises. Despite opposition uproar on the alleged involvement of then Koraput MP Jayram Pangi in the case, the BJD did not take any action and ordered a CID probe. In 2015, the CBI took over the case following a petition by a young law graduate from Odisha in Supreme Court. The case was quickly forgotten after the CBI closed the case in 2017 due to a lack of evidence.
In the case of the alleged gang rape of a 14-year-old Dalit girl of Koraput district in October 2017 by a few paramilitary personnel deployed for anti-Maoist operations, the state government refused to order a CBI probe. The girl then died by suicide in January 2018 alleging torture and harassment by police following which the Orissa High Court ordered a probe by the SIT in November 2019. The SIT is yet to submit its final report to High Court.
Despite the public uproar that followed in both cases, the BJD won in the respective assembly constituencies in the subsequent elections. In the 2014 assembly election, BJD candidate Lal Bihari Himirika won from Rayagada while in the 2019 assembly election, Pritam Padhi won from Pottangi assembly constituency.
Similarly, in the case of alleged gang rape and murder of a 19-year-old Dalit girl in Pipili area of Puri district in November 2011, Patnaik asked local MLA and agriculture minister Pradip Maharathy to resign in January 2012. But that did not stop the party from winning the two consecutive panchayat polls in the district as well as the assembly constituency in 2014 and 2019.
In October 2019, panchayat extension officer Smitarani Biswal was found dead in a private guest house owned by Rupesh Bhadra, a BJD member and husband of the sarpanch of Haridaspur panchayat in Jajpur district. The state assembly saw pandemonium for days with opposition staging a walkout demanding CBI inquiry. That case too was forgotten a few weeks later.
In July last year, a 5-year-old girl of Nayagarh district went missing from her home and a few days later, her skeletal remains were found behind her house. The girl’s murder triggered outrage in November last year when her parents tried to immolate themselves before the state Assembly accusing higher education minister Arun Sahoo of shielding a person who they thought had killed their daughter. Even as the opposition continued to demand Sahoo’s ouster, the chief minister remained unmoved.
While Patnaik’s indifference to act swiftly in such cases may be driven by realpolitik, Odisha’s image of a state where women were considered safe has taken a nosedive. The National Crime Record Bureau figures for 2020 revealed that the overall crime rate against women in Odisha was 112.9, second only to Assam. The same year, Odisha recorded 12605 molestation cases, the highest in the country pipping bigger states like Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. The state also continued to top the list of states in cases of “assault or use of criminal force on women with intent to disrobe” for the 7th year in a row. The state also reported the highest number of cybercrimes against women in the country. With the rate of crime against children at 43.9 per 1 lakh population, Odisha was among the top five states.
BJD’s Pratap Deb says the perception of women not being safe in the Naveen Patnaik government is a media creation. “Now more and more people are reporting such cases with police which was not there earlier. In the Mamita Meher case, let the opposition leaders bring evidence over the involvement of the minister and then the CM will take action,” said Deb.
Despite the defiance shown by BJD in the murder case of the Kalahandi schoolteacher, many believe Patnaik may blink if Mishra proves to be a political liability over the next couple of months. With panchayat polls scheduled in February next year, a canny Patnaik may just drop Mishra if things get too hot for him.
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