The Bhadrakh Riots

Bhadrakh is a place associated with my childhood memories. I spent solid 5 years in that small town before migrating permanently to Bhubaneswar in the year 1976 after finishing Class III at BANKA lower primary school in that city which then was part of the old Balasore district.

I still remember living close to the dusty embarkment of river Shalandi, high enough to protect the neighborhood from being marooned during monsoon floods, snaking its way through the sleepy city. One of my first memories is the images of bared thatched roofs on the aftermaths of the deadly cyclone of 1971 when I was barely 3 years old. 

We were housed in a predominantly Bengali neighborhood with multiple Muslim households scattered around, forming a sizable part of the community and my friend circle in school. I still remember my school friends from class III with nick names SAIBA (A local variation of Sahib), RAZA PATHANA (Rezamuddin Khan), PECHA (the Owl), CHHELI (the Goat) who was a fast climber of KARAMANGA (Star fruit) trees and so on. 

All these memories came floating by when I heard the news of riots in the city, same as an old song over radio waves wafting in memories associated with the time. I was saddened to see pictures of burning pyres on the streets in what once used to be a peaceful city, a symbol of communal harmony.

As usual, the blame game has well begun, before anything but half is done. All political parties are now accusing each other of complicity in the imbroglio. BJP known to practice hard Hindutva is seen as the usual culprit in the eyes of the minorities. BJD and Congress party of Odisha are known for espousing soft Hindutva - as Muslims forming hardly 4% of the state's electorates are in a position to make a significant political dent. In this murky world of alternate truth and fake news, the truth behind this riot is only known to Ram and Allah and may never be known to us mere mortals.

But what is known is the reaction of the mortals at the helm of affairs. Official reaction so far has been quite typically bureaucratic, more gesture and rhetoric driven inactions than substance and result oriented endeavors. Here are a few examples.

An official statement of "the situation is tense but under control" is immediately given - a standard practice from Doordarshan (the solitary government controlled TV channel) era since 35 years ago as far as I can remember.

The Collector (the man in charge of administrator of the district) has been transferred, another standard official protocol dilligently followed since 18th century. The joke is - the transferred Collector had already retired. (Sounds confusing ? But not so uncommon in the world of bureaucracy where plum postings in sensitive coastal districts of Odisha are pocketed by Babus with zero administrative skills with license to loot. With a knack of collecting revenues less for the state and more for BADA BADIAs (bigwigs) of Bhubaneswar, they are invariably tardy in retiring with blessings from the top. This looks like a classic case study of such scenario)

Nero fiddled as Rome burned - the inept government in Bhubaneswar is caught napping while taking its summer siesta post an afternoon bout of PAKHALA as Bhadrakh burns. Few believe the new collector will come as the Knight in Shining Armor and fix everything using a magic wand. 

Banning social media for 48 hours also hardly makes sense, same as Trump's plan to build a 20 feet fence across Mexico's border. As there is always a 21 feet ladder for a 20 feet wall, there is always a 49th hour miscreant ready to create nuisance as the pass of the 48th hour deadline.

More than any administrative magic, let's keep faith in time being the best healer. Let's keep our fingers crossed, hoping for the best - for unlike many other Indian states communal violence is not the forte of Odisha. Let's keep it that way.