The little girl of Kunduli attracted everybody’s sympathy in life and, more so, when gone in a strange manner. The rape event still remains a mystery. The BJD Government did its dutiful bit as much as any other most responsible government could have. The innocent girl kept saying men in uniform committed the heinous crime. The police believably couldn’t have any intention of making the whole incident a ‘hush hush' one.
Most unfortunately, the whole episode was so badly messed up by political communities that the real picture never emerged in public. The self-serving political creatures, mostly from the opposition outfits, turned the little girl an ‘object of advantage', an act more heinous than the crime itself. The girl child kept saying the perpetrators were men in uniform. And the whole world knows just too well that criminals, at times, don state ‘enforcement uniform' to deceive and dupe victims and authorities alike. The girl suffered immensely, but the political devils capitalised the issue to make hay. Not one character with a thinking head raised questions regarding which men in uniform did that most abominable act. There have been instances of insurgency outfit members committing such crimes donning uniform.
The helpless girl seemed, at all times, to have been tutored, even in her unthinkable agony, to make statements against the state forces without any factual foundation. It’s also not believable that the government would want to brush the issue under the carpet. They would rather do a top grade job to nab the crooks and make a name. The people must recognise the fact that the Naveen Patnaik administration, no matter how tough it is to kill a home member, has invariably tossed out undesirable elements from the fold like trotting kids do a pain-causing object. If that be the usual culture, would a miniscule number of criminals from any enforcement be spared by the power that be? Hence, the very allegation by the detractors that the State authorities were keen to protect criminals, or that they were not serious about the little girl’s life or reputation, is without logic. Lately, the girl woke up one fine morning to allege that a DG came along to her in hospital and offered a bribe of Ra 90,000 never to raise any more voice. All hell had gone loose and the media had a gala time with the make-believe sensation. The incumbent DG was stunned to hear the allegation. But extremely honest and firmly resolute that he is, he simply chose to remain quiet.
The opponents have done disservice to the people of Odisha by calling an unlawful strike that has affected lives of everyone as there was not much time given even to remain prepared to stay indoors with food and lifesaving provisions. Travellers covering long distances narrated terrible experiences of woe as they got stuck without help with kids, the sick and the elderly. The opposition members caused havoc. Most shockingly, they grabbed the body of the girl and used it as an inanimate object to attract public attention, which is an act of crime by all parameters. They placed the body on road to bring normal life to a halt. Most media agencies kept carrying news as if the Government had turned anarchic and dysfunctional. Needless to say the Government has ordered a judicial investigation into the sensitive, least-understood matter, which normally does not happen when other credible agencies like the Human Rights Commission and some other probe bodies have declared that the rape charge is not tenable as no trace of evidence to that effect has been traced after a thorough and methodical study was conducted. It is natural for the ordinary masses to suspect something is wrong mainly because of irresponsible media reporting; but they have also figured out how the opponents resort to anti-people methods to make political gains. The television bites by numerous ordinary people including students, daily wage workers, travellers and patients have indicated how terribly irked and irritated they are at the populist opposition parties for resorting to cheap ways of staging protest.
Naveen Patnaik is obviously the target of all those kept out of power for decades. Some of them have been thrown to oblivion for not being in public life for long. A few of them are keen to join the magical Naveen outfit after gaining wisdom that until Naveen is kicking around, no other force can come to power. Naveen has scored so highly in the minds of the people that even outclassing him on the popularity front is just impossible. Further, they are regularly silenced by credible national agencies and rating outfits from among the media and academia that keep rating Naveen as a unique political leader with exceptional qualities.
‘India Today', ‘Outlook’ and several statesmen-columnists have said unequivocally that Naveen is an enigmatic political personality without a parallel in the country, essentially because it is very difficult to decipher his superb inherent qualities that endear him to the masses. He is just not a routinely stereotype among the politicians. They have termed him ‘Best Chief Minister', ‘Best Administrator'; and the latest feather in his cap was conferred on him on January 21 by a leading, highly credible academic institution, the MIT World Peace University in Pune. The university has declared him ‘Ideal Chief Minister’. The detractors have lost their sanity and sense over the conferment and gone berserk. Srikant Jena, now a nondescript Congress last-liner, has the audacity to tell on television that Naveen is so crafty as to organise rewards and recognition for himself from fake organisations by paying a bribe and showing off at home. Jena has entered politics by bootlicking the legendary Biju Patnaik once upon a time and extracted the best of everything from the unsuspecting philanthropist by way of being promoted to positions in the State and Central Governments. But when it came to Biju becoming Prime Minister or a topmost commanding Central Minister, this beneficiary conspired to have Biju defamed by spreading filthy rumours against him among the top level guys. Biju, a diehard lion of a human species, shed two drops of tear over the ‘backstabbing' by his biggest protégé, but never for losing out in the power game. Jena lost everything in life except perhaps some money and licked his own spit by joining the outfit he had openly declared lifelong enemy, the Congress. Jena, by a stroke of luck, had won the Baleswar Lok Sabha seat only because Naveen’s party had desired so.
Just to educate the people, some facts about the great university which chose to reward Naveen:
Pratibha Patil, former President of India, gave away the award.
Chief guest Dr Murli Manohar Joshi, eminent scientist, BJP leader, former Union Minister crowned Naveen personally.
At the great event, Naveen was received by Dr Abhay Firodia, Chairman, Force Motors, Milind Deora, former Union Minister for Communications, IT & Shipping, Dr Raghunath A Mashelkar, eminent scientist, and guest of honour Piyush Goyal, Union Minister.
A documentary film on Naveen was shown to the august gathering apart from a grand citation read out by a celebrity anchor.
The chief patron of the university is Devendra Fadnavis, Chief Minister of Maharashtra. Other luminaries of the Board include Chairman TN Seshan, former CEC, President Dr RA Mashelkar, Research Professor, eminent scientist Prof Dr Vishwanath D Kard, Founder & Executive President, Executive Chairman Tushar Gandhi, president, Mahatma Gandhi Foundation, Anu Aga, Member of Parliament, Chairperson, Teach For India, Dr Rajeev Gowda, MP, Former Prof, IIM, Dr Vinay Sahasrabudhe, MP, BJP national vice-president, Justice N Santosh Hegde, former Justice, Supreme Court, Dr Lobsang Sangay, Prime Minister of Tibetan Government-in-Exile, Mark Tully, former bureau chief, BBC, India, Prof S Parasuraman, Director, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Dr Vijay Bhatkar, Chancellor, Nalanda University.
At the Pune event, Naveen addressed 10,000 youths from across the country who had congregated to hear the Chief Minister of the masses. Incidentally, as CM, it was Naveen's first public address before an applauding pan-India audience.
The mysterious Kunduli girl death is one of the most heartrending events in the recent times. But the ruling party can’t be blamed blindly for that. The judicial investigation will come up with the truth for certain.
(The writer is a core member of Transparency International, Odisha)