Majhi government’s one year marked by controversies and communal tension

Ahead of his government’s first anniversary on Thursday (12 June) Odisha’s first-ever BJP chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi has sought to position himself as a people-centric leader with zero tolerance for corruption.

Talking to media-persons he asserted that while his government had so far initiated criminal action against 200 government servants facing graft charges it had also provided jobs to around 28,000 people, thus fulfilling part of the commitment the BJP made in its election manifesto about creating 65,000 jobs in the first two years after coming to power.

However, Majhi made no mention of his government’s failure to check growing communal tension in the state with fanatic Hindu elements launching attacks on minorities in different areas soon after BJP came to power.

Nor did he choose to dwell on the steps the government would like to take to prevent horrific incidents like harassment of an army officer and his fiancée at a police station in Bhubaneswar in September last year. The case had sent shockwaves across the state with even ex-army personnel holding anti-government demonstrations.  

With pressure mounting the government was forced to suspend five police personnel including the inspector in-charge of Bharatpur police station, where the incident had taken place. However, suspension of four of them was withdrawn in less than a year.

Crimes against women have been on the rise in the state with Congress alleging that 60,000 women have gone missing in the state and rapists are not sparing even school going girls.

Congress MLAs, who staged a demonstration in the state assembly over the issue a few months ago, were promptly suspended from the House. “Our fight over the issue continues as the party remains committed to protecting the dignity of women which this government is not capable of doing,” said former party MLA Dr Lalatendu Mohapatra.

Majhi government’s first major challenge was tackling the communal flare-up in Balasore barely six days after the ministry was sworn in. With clashes between rival communities leaving at least 20 persons injured the entire town, which is located close to communally sensitive Bhadrak, had to be placed under curfew and internet services had to be suspended.

It took a few days for the situation in Balasore, the constituency of former union minister Pratap Sarangi, to be brought under control.

But the government obviously did not learn any lesson from the Balasore incident and communal elements continued to feel emboldened. They began targeting Christians with one of the most gruesome incidents reported in January from Remuna area of Balasore where two tribal women were tied to a tree and beaten up by a mob on the suspicion engaging in religious conversions.

The mob also smeared the face of one of the women with the cake she had allegedly brought to celebrate the conversion of the Hindu man into Christianity.

A video of the incident that went viral on the social media showed the two women tied to a tree with a mob surrounding and jeering them and a man sporting a vermillion tikka shouting “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” and “Jai Sriram.”   Though police detained four youths in connection with the incident they were later released after apologising to the women, a lame excuse of letting them go scot free.    

Such leniency on the part of police appears strange and unjustifiable considering Odisha’s history of communal tension, involving Hindus and Christians in particular.

In January 1999 the state witnessed the horrendous incident of a mob led by a self-styled Hindu leader Dara Singh torch a station wagon at Manoharpur in Keonjhar, the home district chief minister Mohan Majhi, roasting alive Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two minor sons.

The mob suspected Staines of engaging in religious conversions. Christians who account for only 2.77 per cent of the state's total population, still remain highly vulnerable to attacks from rivals.

The Majhi government has also been accused of trying to erase the legacy of former chief minister, Biju Patnaik, one of the architects of modern Odisha, after whom Biju Janata Dal (BJD), state’s main opposition party led by his son Naveen Patnaik has been named.

There were murmurs of protest when soon after coming to power the BJP government started changing names of schemes and projects named after Biju Babu, as the late leader was fondly addressed by his followers, things came to a head last March when it decided to discontinue the tradition of celebrating the leader’s birth anniversary on 5 March as Panchayati Raj Divas.

The BJP government, which has also scrapped the customary public holiday on 5 March, sought to justify its decision on the ground that observance of 5 March as Panchayati Raj Divas in Odisha and celebration of National Panchayati Raj Day on 24 April was creating unnecessary confusion.

“To overcome this inconsistency at the national and state levels in the celebration of Panchayati Raj Day, the state government has decided to no longer celebrate 5 March as Panchayati Raj Day in Odisha and will instead celebrate it on 24 April,” a statement from the chief minister’s office had said, explaining the rationale behind the move which was decried by not only the two main opposition parties, BD and Congress, but also intellectuals of different hues.

“This is what you call petty politics. Biju Babu did not belong to any particular political party, he symbolised Odia pride,” said Sabita Mohanty who teaches political science. The BJP government’s spree of rebranding the schemes launched by the previous BJP government led by Naveen Patnaik has also raised eyebrows.

Ever since coming to power in June last year Majhi government has renamed several schemes, especially the ones that honour and commemorate Biju Patnaik.

While Biju Pucca Ghar Yojana has been rechristened as Antyodaya Gruha Yojana, the Biju Setu Yojana is now called  Setu Bandhan Yojana. The BJD government’s flagship health scheme Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana (BSKY) has now been replaced with Centre’s Ayushman Bharat Yojana which Naveen government had kept resisting till the end of its tenure.

“It is clear that the new government wants to remove every trace of Biju Patnaik from public memory but what they fail to realise that Biju Babu, with his vast contribution to the making of modern Odisha, is now part of the Odia psyche,” said political analyst Shashi Kant Mishra.  

The Majhi government has been taking credit for organising the Pravasi Bhartiya Divas (PBD) in Odisha for the first time in January this year. The event was followed by Utkarsh Odisha, a rebranded biennial investment conclave that was launched by Naveen Patnaik government in 2016 under the name Make in Odisha.

The conclave, according to claims made by Majhi,  attracted investment proposals worth a staggering Rs 16.73 lakh crore across sectors, setting a new benchmark for the state.  

However, former chief minister and present leader of opposition Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday sought to debunk the myth of economic growth being created by Majhi and alleged that state’s loan burden had increased under the one year rule of BJP.

“When the BJD government took over in 2000, the state’s loan burden was Rs 18,000 crore. However, by 2024, it managed a surplus of Rs 45,000 crore in the treasury,” he said and criticised the Majhi government’s mishandling of the  economy.

He also lambasted the BJP for undermining his government’s efforts to empower women through Mission Shakti, a full-fledged government department that was creating economic opportunities for women by organising them into self-help groups.

With women SHGs under Mission Shakti reaching a membership figure of over 70 lakh the BJP suspected it of acting as a major vote-bank for rival BJD and began running it down, leaving SHG members frustrated.

The BJP government instead launched the Subhadra scheme under which women will receive a total amount of Rs 50,000 over five years. But the scheme does not hold the promise of making women financially independent which was the purpose of Mission Shakti.

“Naveen government’s scheme had several advantages for women, the most important one being that it brought several departments together to create business opportunities for low-income group women like us,” said Prashanti Parida who got her first job, thanks to Mission Shakti.