It is immensely heartening to see Lalu Yadav landing in jail to look after innocent cattle whose fodder he had eaten up without mercy. He says he now is old and ailing; so, the court be lenient on punishment. His son Tejashwi is sore, believing the whole episode is political vendetta.
Lalu had become a Jayaprakash Narayan follower in the mid-Seventies of the last century when the latter had ignited a nation-reforming revolution against gross misrule and corruption by despotic Indira Gandhi. Lalu had made a name as student leader and because of association with Jayaprakash; he made it to the Lok Sabha as the youngest MP at 29 after Indira’s fall.
That was 1977 when the people of India pinned great hopes on him. But he degenerated fast and became one of the worst leaders of undivided Bihar who looted the people day in and day out. No wonder, the poor cattle too were not spared. Bad times befell him much later; and he was morally pressurised to step down. But he did that only nominally on record, placed wife Rabri Devi as Chief Minister and ran the State as badly as ever on the proxy mode.
The rest of the history is too well-known. Now, he is shivering in the Birsa Munda Jail in Hazaribag. That’s divine penalty he is paying for his sins. People have reposed greater faith in the Indian judiciary. They hail the wise Special CBI Court of Ranchi for having thoughtfully decided to put Lalu to serving the non-vocal cattle whom he had heartlessly wronged.
Latest news is that two known Lalu aides, nay beneficiaries, have dutifully landed in jail to serve Lalu. One wealthy, SUV-riding Madan Yadav posed as street thief and got theatrically nabbed by accomplice Sumit Yadav who filed a complaint with police. Accused surrendered too merrily before the CJM and got sent to Laulu’s Hazaribag home much to his delight to serve the cattle enemy with pride.
Another Laxman Yadav, a former cook at Lalu’s home, too did pull a similar act to join Madan to be at Lalu’s feet. Such characters have survived only because of crafty communication skills and buffoonery that amuse masses. Lalu’s fellow revolutionary Nitish Kumar has remained untainted though his ideological stands have taken a beating several times over the years.
*It’s also very relieving to know that Indians will not have to chant the national anthem in theatres. The apex court’s earlier ruling was really misplaced. One need not scream the anthem to prove his patriotism. Such practices are considered inane and waste of time. All the same, the latest ruling, by way of self-correction, indicates the Supreme Court is truly functioning as mistakes, once realised, are corrected immediately. Jurisprudence remains intact across the minds of the judges.
*Naveen Patnaik, popularly known as an enigmatic CM Odisha, keeps sticking to his ‘tribunal guns’ on the Mahanadi issue as featherweight BJP opponents are insanely busy trying to brand him a record-time misruler.
They kept blaming Naveen for not being able to learn Odia. So, Naveen has made sure he speaks the mother tongue at mass gatherings and makes people trust him on his love and respect for the language. At the recently-held BJD anniversary celebration at Puri, he declared a series of Odia-boosting schemes.
His Government has taken several decisions to enrich the language by amending the 1954 Act and framing punishment rules for violators among officials and business establishments who will be bound to display signboards in Odia only. A World Odia Language Conference will be organised every five years.
There will be no fees for students pursuing Odia language course at the graduation and post-graduation levels. Scholarship and stipend would be provided to meritorious undergraduate students. Students would be supported to pursue research in Odia in the UGC pattern with bigger number of PhD seats. Annual State- and district-level book fairs would be organised besides setting up “smart libraries” with Odia books in all district headquarters and high schools.
Non-resident Odias will be provided special help to learn Odia. Most significantly, replies to letters and complaints from the public will be made in Odia. Importantly, Bhagabat Tungis, which are small village hubs where religious texts are narrated to the locals, would be revived on a priority basis with maintenance grants doubled to Rs 2,000.
So many years after passing of the Odisha Official Language Act in 1954, the Government has implemented the legislation with the Cabinet approving the rules for the purpose. Odia is already the State’s official language. The Governor promulgated an Ordinance as Odisha Official Language (Amendment Act), duly published in the Odisha Gazette on May 21, 2016. As per the rule of the Act, a language division would function under the General Administration Department to ensure the Act being implemented without violation.
A committee headed by the Chief Secretary and with Secretaries of Information and Public Relations, General Administration, School and Mass Education and Higher Education as members would be the high power body to monitor the Odia promotion schemes and provide guidance for improvement whenever necessary.
The GA Department Special Secretary would function as the Member-Convenor of the committee, which would meet at least twice a year to review the process of implementation. The Cabinet also approved a proposal to establish a unitary Odia Language and Literature University in Bhubaneswar for furthering the advancement of learning and research in Odia at the postgraduate level in different domains of Odia literature, language, linguistics, comparative literature, criticism. antique record, evolution of Odia scripts, history scripts, tribal language study, regional language study, epigraphy, archaeology and museology and translation into and from Odia.
Needless to say, all letters, files and other official works at Government offices across the State would be carried out in Odia only. Thus, the popular demand for implementation of the Odia Official Language Act has been fulfilled in text.
The spirit has to be seen from now on. A committee headed by Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi has been constituted to ensure mandatory use of the language in all Government works. The panel would review the use of the mother tongue every six months. An Ordinance for implementation of the Act was approved in the Cabinet meeting held in the first week of August 2016.
As usual, Odia language activists, linguists and intellectuals have questioned the efficacy of the steps taken. Linguist Padmashri Debi Prasanna Pattnayak is concerned that unlike in other States, no directorate, commission or body has been formed in Odisha to monitor the actual implementation of the rules. A commission with quasi-judicial powers better be in place to impose penalty and punishment to prevent violators from undermining the use of Odia, primarily the business entities and secondarily Government officials ignoring Odia.
Though Dr Pattanayak targets the official violators only, the truth is that business establishments are huge in number and are unavoidably exposed to public view and scrutiny. Hence, they may be indoctrinated to the spirit of upholding Odia language everywhere.
Lastly, the Odia language preservation activists do not seem to be aware of what historic steps are being taken by the administration. Maybe, there is not much publicity on the moves and strategies. They keep agitating vociferously probably to prove that unless a CM speaks the local language, nothing good can happen to the public, which of course is a wrong notion.
It’s the intention rather than external behaviour which counts the most. Janaki Ballav Patnaik, an erudite Odia language master, ruled the State for one and a half decades. But he could not make Odia the official language.
He knew there are ground realities which cannot be ignored. Further, he knew speaking or writing magnificently in Odia does not make a great administrator. So, he too had left the job halfway. The Odia vernacular schools are degenerating all around only because children of most educated people are purposefully sent to English medium schools to have a brighter future as the language is today the lingua franca of the squeezed, shrunken globe.
Many of the noisy activists too hide the fact that their children avoid Odia language schools. It’s high time leading politicians and Odia activists came under scanner to know how much love they have for the language they are fighting to preserve in a most dignified manner.