Kalinga Nagar was an unforseen tragedy against the backdrop of well intentioned move of government to bring Orissa to a conspicuous position in All India Industrial map. Yes, there were loose ends; Inadequate compensation, compensation pocketed by third parties, delay in giving compensation money, corruption, land fraud etc aided by vested interest groups, nexus of local touts and politicians, corrupt and inefficient administrative machinery. But nobody wanted to kill innocent tribals. Political opponents were jealous at the pace of industrial progress and wanted to checkmate Naveen Patnaik. They wanted a ground. Mass propaganda was being carried out how POSCO will destroy Orissa, how steel plants would do more damage to locals than benefits etc. Not that there were no merits in these allegations. But the intention was not to view the issues purely from cost benefit angle and bring necessary changes to limit the damage and enhance benefit. There were hidden political interests and publicity of demerits were mere ploy to accentuate those interests. 

       Then the unfortunate happened and the rest is history. Political interests have now been laid bare. Congress now wants to discuss  only Kalinga Nagar in the Assembly, state and restate through speeches, newspapers, Kalinga Raths the same thing again and again and wants Naveen to resign.And Janki Babu is leading the brigade. Nobody is interested to discuss details about the lapses that led to the tragedy, the role of local Tehsildar in the land deals and compensation handling during the last 10 years, the details of land transfers in the area, where exactly package for displaced people went wrong. It seems things will come to normal once Naveen is gone. Issue is to push Naveen out of power, not sorting the problems affecting the tribals. On the other hand, Government should do much more than announcing relief packages day in and day out. It has to answer why the displacement packages failed to deliver and the local legislator could not gauge the simmering discontentment of the villagers which could have averted loss of so many innocent lives. The greatest tragedy is that those who lost their lives or those who are continuing the month long economic blockade are blissfully unaware of the political dice game.

Dated 05/02/2006