PM Narendra Modi bonds with families of forgotten martyrs

BHUBANESHWAR: Prime Minister Narendra Modi kicked off day two of his visit to Odisha by felicitating descendants of those who fought in various anti-colonial struggles including the 1817 Paika armed rebellion against British East India Co. On the occasion, Modi rued the restricted dimensions to the narrative of India’s struggle for freedom.

“Unfortunately the narrative of the freedom struggle has been restricted to few families, few dynasties and few events. But, the freedom struggle was people’s movements filled with sagas of dedications and sacrifices spanning over 700 to 800 years,” said Modi at an event in the Raj Bhavan on Sunday.

Such forgotten martyrs of Indian history, whose dedication and sacrifice had gone unacknowledged would be recognised when India would celebrate 75 years of independence in 2022, promised Modi.

Descendants of 16 families, whose ancestors such as Baxi Jagabandhu Bidyadhar Mohapatra, Jayi Rajguru, Veer Surendra Sai, Saheed Laxman Nayak, Chakhi Khuntia and Rendo Majhi, accepted plaques in their honour.

This is the 200th years of that revolution which began with the revolt led by the “baxi” or commander of the Raja of Khurda. The Union Government has set aside Rs 100 cr to celebrate the completion of the 200 years since the event that predates the first war of Independence.

Present today were mother, brother, and daughter of late Congressman Lalatendu Bidyadhar Mohapatra better known as Lulu Mahapatra. “We are happy that the acknowledgement they (our ancestors) deserves, was finally granted today by the PM,” said his young daughter Upasana Mohapatra.
Lulu who died late last year,, a year after his mentor and former Congress Chief Minister JB Patnaik, had a significant following in pockets of coastal Odisha districts, Khordha and Puri. His exploits during his days in student politics in 1980s allowed him to retain a hold on the imagination of the odia youth till his untimely death at the age of 52.

The buzz in town is that Lulu’s family is being wooed by the BJP. They aren’t the only Congress leaders that the BJP has had talks with. Another senior Congressman told ET on condition of anonymity that he had met with a BJP minister from the state, but was not sure he wanted to play second fiddle to the party's existing leaders.

The infighting in Odisha Congress and its leadership crisis has left its people ripe for the plucking. The BJP will, if it moves fast, fill certain leadership deficiencies it has outside of western Odisha. Senior party leaders have in the past acknowledged that this weakness is what prevented them from converting the “Modi wave” in 2014 into parliamentary seats.

But now that the party has left a demoralised state Congress behind in the recent Panchayat elections, it sees for itself a chance to form the next government in Odisha. It will have much of its work cut out if the fight in 2019 is largely reduced to a dual between itself and incumbent BJD.

A tricornered electoral battle, ever since Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik dumped the its alliance partner the BJP in pre-2009 has only worked to BJD's advantage