By Subhas Chandra Pattanayak
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik seems to have developed a wrong notion that governance of Orissa in Oriya depends upon his mercy. His press-note of December 17 and full page display advertisement in major broadsheets of today force us to arrive at this apprehension.
In his December 17 press note it was declared that he had held a meeting with the five members of the ministerial committee on that day for the purpose of “strictly implementing the Orissa Official Language Act, 1954 in official and non-official level” to facilitate which a website has been floated by the government. In the full page multi-color advertisement in broadsheet dailies today, this is intriguingly missing.
The advertisement is designed to tell the people that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has taken historical steps to save and develop Oriya language, and has enumerated the steps he has taken. This is blatant lie. Neither he nor his government has executed any single item claimed to be “historical” in the official advertisement. The entire advertisement is nothing but false propaganda. What a shame it is, that, the people of Orissa are taken for granted by their Chief Minister!
We have now enough reason to apprehend that the Chief Minister is trying to render our movement for governance of Orissa in Oriya inconsequential.
I will come to the crux of the issue in course of the discussion. At the outset let me make it clear that Oriya Language has created Orissa and therefore, it is Oriya language that must rule over Orissa.
Had there been no Oriya Language, there would have been no land called Orissa. Had there been no land called Orissa, there would have been no chief minister called Naveen Patnaik.
So, it is better for Naveen babu to know that governance of Orissa in Oriya is not our begging; it is our right. For Oriya language to rule over Orissa, we don’t need the Chief Minister’s mercy. Continue reading “Bhasha Andolan: What is it, and Why?”
