By BISWARAJ PATNAIK, December 24, 2016 : BJP’s cadres are behaving like insane militants with support from some Congress groups, though they are sworn enemies cross-country. When poor school students of Odisha don’t get fresh eggs in the midday meals due to high prices, insane political youngsters pelt eggs at metal shutters of the entrance gate of a confused mayor of Bhubaneswar.

These agitators behaved like street hoodlums on hire. They were frightened young people holding BJP flags had faces ridiculously hidden with cloth masks. The eggs could have been donated to schools with poor support to feed the perpetually hungry kids.

Though any militant activity by people in protest is banned by the Supreme Court of India, these dumb – headed agitators could have done better if ‘rotten potatoes and eggs’ were chosen to be hurled at the accused (wrongly or rightly), for that these objects do not injure targets physically but hurts due to the hellish smell which remains in force for a whole day unless washed away with best of detergents followed by spraying of strong deodorants all around.

Some poorly educated citizens imagine that the mayor of a tiny city is the ‘first citizen’ where even the state Governor, the Chief Minister and other super heavyweights reside as kings and princes. Further, people also may not know that the Municipal Commissioner is the bigger boss than the mayor in taking all critical decisions  because he knows laws of the land, has the skills for framing rules and implementing them effectively.

It is common knowledge the Mayor Anant Narayan Jena remains busy keeping political masters happy and corporates fittingly bribed to remain safe in chair.  Jena could have been nabbed on the rising number of dirty, criminal-infested slums and garbage yards at wrong places. But accusing him of a sex slur on the basis of a video clip with hazy and unrecognisable visuals is terribly misplaced and ethically wrong. The investigating authorities would come up with the findings soon. If Jena’s involvement is established, law would fix him. It is still premature to declare him guilty.

The Congress and BJP parties are not going to gain a bit on exposing a small mayor even if sex scandal is proved to his disadvantage. BJD Supremo would instantly drop him as hot brick and bring even bigger laurels to the party as he is particularly popular for kicking out corrupt and tainted political biggies from the fold without mercy. But the opposition parties disrupting normal activities and obstructing free flow of traffic shall not be gaining on any score. Their credibility is declining alarmingly.

The private lives of our leaders are interesting in the sense that we identify with others – with their daily struggles and interests. We like to point to what someone else does as an example of what they believe. However, one’s private struggles should not make or break an incumbent – we don’t elect our leaders to be a moral authority; but a legislative one. But, we are all human and don’t always live up to our own standards. We could have the world’s greatest leader with marital issues, or we could have a dangerous fascist with the perfect family. We have to decide who the perfect leader is.

But it’s also true that a characterless leader loses public trust. A leader is not like a technician who may do a good technical job while being a terribly bad person. But a politician has to be good person to remain in public good book. Politicians’ private lives reveal more about their morals than their soundbites. What politicians do in their private lives matters and does impact their public responsibilities. People would not vote for a candidate who espoused law and order, but broke the law regularly. The person would be considered a hypocrite and not someone likely to respect their values.

Most western people care about a politician’s private life to the extent that it gives them insight into her/his character. So they don’t care about a person’s sexual orientation, but do care about the extent of the lying people do to hide their escapades or extramarital affairs. But Clinton’s initial lies about the Monica Lewinsky thing seemed like something anyone would do to save his family and himself embarrassment; John Edward’s cheating on his critically ill wife, lying about it, and trying to get someone else to take the fall for the pregnancy of his girlfriend was over the top and indicated a level of selfishness that is unacceptable.

But actions speak louder than words, and one’s private actions that one may wish to keep private are relevant when they do not align with words and promises made to people.

Some radically democratic people believe the public should not care  about a leader’s private life except when it affects the politician’s public life- paying a prostitute with taxpayer money, leaving one’s office unmanaged, or contracting a venereal disease are all detriments to the job the taxpayers hired you to do. It subjects a politician to pressures, up to and including outright blackmail, that are potentially distracting from their public duties. But the media only cares about “character” and “sleaze” because sensation brings them revenue and respite from running around against odds.

The private lives of our leaders are interesting in the sense that we identify with others – with their daily struggles and interests. We like to point to what someone else does as an example of what they believe. However, one’s private struggles should not make or break a candidate – we don’t elect our leaders to be a moral authority; but a legislative one. But, we are all human and don’t always live up to our own standards. We could have the world’s greatest leader with marital issues, or a dangerous fascist with the perfect family. Obviously the former would be the choice.

The protesters are insanely destructive. Congress and BJP front liners are holding the society to ransomed.  This violent agitation should have happened only after the investigation authorities had conclusively held Anant Jena as a devilish lecher. This is just not the time for the irresponsible media to hold court and prosecute Anant Jena only because some pinhead opposition leaders scream to that effect. Wait and watch should be the wisest thing to do.

The truth about the engineering student dying in mysterious circumstances would also be out by then. The provider of the cloudy -picture video clip, Pradip Pandy too has no strength of conviction. He only keeps harping on the urgency of investigation. The big pity is that the name ‘Niankhunta’ has been stolen from a same-name magazine founded by legendary political satirist late Godabarisha Mahapatra who had kept all erring political masters on toes during the 50 and 60s of the last century.

Hopefully,  the small – time mayor of Bhubaneswar will come out clean as he keeps asserting that the silhouette picture of a man in the slur video has an enormous tommy unlike his and the nose of the wolf is vastly different from what God has given him. Whether or not Anant Jena is a moral degenerate, the investigating officials will discover in days.

The BJP and Congress spokespersons keep raising hell as if empowered to accuse, prosecute, adjudicate, convict and also end up as hangmen.

Anant Jena is in trouble with the people only because of irresponsible media behaviour. The party stalwarts have kept mum until now. No one knows why. Small BJD party spokespersons keep trying in vain to provide protection. Asking for his ouster right now makes no sense. Anant has to be stronger in his defence before the media. His defamation and damage cases are fine, but he must insist violently that the accusers provide enough evidence to attract police action only after forensic reports bad enough to implicate him are available in public domain. Anant Jena as mayor is only a small public figure. The Opposition parties have elevated him to an enviable height by putting him in front line news.

File Photo

Lastly, the public has to wake up. For indicting mayor Jena, law enforcement agencies are working hard day in and day out. But disrupting public activities is unlawful and heavily punishable as per law. ‘Bandhs’ have been banned since long. The party Supremos are keeping quiet maybe because they do not know laws of the land or they imagine the masses are fools.

The truth is that most conscious people are callous about or indifferent to critical issues that affect the lives of the ordinary citizens adversely. Anant Jena ‘s moral degradation, if only proven to be true, is not so important to the society as the militant and violent behaviour of the political opponents who keep destroying public property and disrupting normal life and go unpunished. Media has a very big role to play to restore public order by explaining the laws of the land and how the adversely affected citizens can book offenders under a number of legal provisions.

Hopefully, the media pulls out of the mad race of placing horribly irrelevant issues as critical by assassinating characters that are still chaste, spotless and clean by all standard parameters.