By D.N. Singh
It was a very shaky start for Patnagarh MLA Saroj Meher, whose recent actions in making a government official to do sit ups as a measure of punishment did smack of a pre-medieval stupidity. Not only he overshot the limits but his craving for cheap popularity through such a rogue deed has become a nightmare for him.
It was not only a mistake of any ordinary type but an act that must not escape the scrutiny of the Biju Janata Dal head and chief minister Naveen Patnaik. Meher is, perhaps, one of many such leaders in the party who suffer from the dearth of the ability to deal with public cause and thus grow to become the throbbing nerves for Patnaik..
Pending the outcome from the judicial process, which has already started, it must worry the chief minister that whether such a person should be allowed to escape the disciplines of the party.
He should be immediately suspended for an act that was demonstrably a show of schizophrenia, arrogance and conceit, feel observers. Fed on the glory of a success in a mere election not necessarily can be a reason for any person, in the right frame of his mind, to step down to such a draconian level and indulge in a kind of coercion mode to punish an official, allegedly corrupt. Who was he to sit in judgement is question that lurks in many minds.
What is normal in case of many in politics and enjoying certain power, they comfortably forget their limits and think that, by virtue of their power and influence they can bludgeon any ethics in the book and go scot free. Which is a kind of insanity that such people keep nurturing within and live in a sort of fool’s paradise.
Now, all eyes are on the chief minister, who has many other challenges ahead already, is going to punish this man, unworthy of a good leader, or not. Or else such incidents get piled up that the opposition might use a discredited playback tunes now and then.
In fact, there are plethora of such incidents, here in Odisha and elsewhere, when leaders resort to such kind of Kangaroo court recourse and demean the essence of politics but the leadership restricts itself to sermons only.
