Two individuals and their lone crusades for justice

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