Two individuals and their lone crusades for justice
Surendra Patra in Bhubaneswar
In this the 50th year of our independence, one must spare a thought
for Duti Jena and Bulei Nayak of Orissa. Both of them, in their
own ways, have been fighting the system for years. And nothing
can get them to abandon their lone crusades or their belief that
they can still make something happen through democratic means
of protest.
Duti Jena has been staging a dharna (protest sit-in) in front of the state
assembly in Bhubaneswar for the past four years! Her mission:
to force the state government to fulfill the demands of 11,700
fellow home guards who were "illegally retrenched".
On any given day, you can find this frail 30-year-old dalit woman
sitting quietly with some tattered plastic sheets over her head.
Duti Jena's lone vigil for justice began on February 15, 1993,
soon after she, along with other home guards of the state, was
suddenly retrenched from the police department by the Biju Patnaik
government.
As Jena sits silently in front of the assembly, political life
in Bhubaneswar quietly passes her by. And from her vantage point,
she has seen it all: "I have seen the present chief minister,
J B Patnaik, participating in dharnas, his wife Jayanti
and his son-in-law Soumya Ranjan (who stared at me in amazement
when he heard about my years-long dharna) speaking to agitationists;
and even Biju Patnaik complaining that he had been removed 'illegally'
from the chief ministership!"
But no attention has ever been paid to the lonely lady. Not even
by those for whom she is fighting. "When I first launched
this agitation, there were more than a thousand people with me.
The number came down to 200 within a week and by the end of the
month, it was reduced to six." All the retrenched home guards
felt that it would be a futile exercise to adopt such Gandhian
methods of protest. But Duti stuck to her stand.
"I do not understand complicated things. All I know is that
I have not come here to go back. Come what may, I will continue
the dharna till my brothers and sisters get their dues,"
declares Jena, who has managed to survive on meagre donations
from her home guard friends and spent many a night without food,
in the makeshift tent under a tree.
But the woman from Aska shows no signs of battle fatigue. "I
have now decided to go to Delhi and commence a dharna near
Parliament. And if the central government still refuses to
listen to my cry for justice, I and some of my friends will immolate
ourselves," announces Duti Jena.
White Bulei Nayak is not planning to resort to such extreme measures,
this peon in the chief minister's secretariat too is engaged in
a relentless battle against an apathetic system.
"One's will power is sufficient to fight against an oppressor,"
asserts Nayak, whose fight against a police officer dates back
to the midnight of May 25, 1993. On 6 May, some agitating employees
of the Orissa secretariat had attacked the then chief minister
Biju Patnaik and the then chief secretary, R N Das on the premises
of the state secretariat.
Twenty days later, a platoon of armed policemen, led by Bishnu
Mohapatra, the then assistant superintendent of police of Bhubaneswar, Biswanath Mohapatra, the then subinspector
of capital police station, and Sarbeswar Nishank, the then subinspector of
Balipatna police station, descended on Pampalo, where Bulei Nayak
had gone.
According to Nayak, the police rounded up his family in the dead
of the night. Without any rhyme or reason, Mohapatra beat
him brutally with a baton in front of his family members and
relatives. The cop then forced Nayak to sit on the roads, in the
rain, all through the night.
The next day, Bulei's home at Ranghal was raided. Bulei was taken
to Balipatna police station from where he was released on bail.
Describing the entire episode as an act of police brutality, Bulei
Nayak filed a first information report at the chief minister's office itself on 26
May.
Bulei then sought the permission of the state government to file
a case against Mohapatra and the other policemen who
had tortured him. Thus began his legal battle.
Four long years have passed. And while Bulei Nayak's voice is
all but lost in the wilderness, Mohapatra's career
has prospered. While Bulei's wife and children appeal in vain
to the National Human Rights Commission and other human
rights bodies to take up the matter, Mohapatra has established
himself as a powerful and "well-connected" official.
But Bulei Nayak refuses to give up. "I live in the hope
that I will win the case some day and the guilty will be punished."
Kind courtesy: Sunday magazine
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