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Violence against Christians came in handy for Sonia to dump Patnaik

Archana Masih and Syed Firdaus Ashraf in Bhubaneswar

Did the sudden spurt of attacks on Christians in Orissa become a convenient handle for Congress president Sonia Gandhi to dump J B Patnaik as chief minister and plumb for someone of her choice? Given the uneasy relations between the two, and the fact that at least two of the alleged attacks against Christians turned out to be false, it is not an entirely implausible scenario.

It is well known that relations between Gandhi and Patnaik were never warm, ever since she took over as Congress president last year. In fact, one of the initial decisions she took was to sack him from the Congress Working Committee, the highest decision-making body in the party.

And not without reason, for Patnaik was always seen as a supporter of former prime minister and Sonia's bete noire P V Narasimha Rao. During the 1998 elections, despite the fact that Rao was a pariah within the party and was denied a ticket from Behrampur in Orissa, Patnaik nevertheless invited him to campaign for the Congress party.

And the results did not do anything to warm the cockles of Congressmen's hearts. A resurgent Biju Janata Dal led by Naveen Patnaik and the Bharatiya Janata Party virtually sewed up Orissa between them, and Patnaik's slide within the party had begun.

Manoeuvring has not been alien to Janki Ballabh Patnaik. When the Congress won the state in the 1995, after its rout in 1990, top contenders for the chief minister's post were PCC president Giridhar Gomango and Hemananda Biswal. Using his good offices with Rao, who was then the prime minister as well as AICC president, Patnaik was the surprise choice for the CM's post. But the tragedy about hitching one's fortunes to shooting stars is that the fall could be as spectacular as the rise, as Patnaik is probably realising now.

Anjana Mishra's rape case was the first nail in his coffin. Sonia was naturally upset at the incident, since not only had Mishra accused Patnaik of shielding Indrajit Roy, one of the main accused and the former advocate general of Orissa, but also because to her, as a woman, the use of rape and physical violence against a woman could not be stomached.

Mishra, the estranged wife of an Indian Foreign Service officer was allegedly gangraped by three men at gunpoint on January 11, and the resultant slew of publicity showing up the Congress, and Orissa administration, in a very poor light.

PCC president Biswal, who had succeeded Patnaik as CM in 1989, was immediately summoned to Delhi by Sonia for a first-hand report on the situation, and Biswal helped Patnaik little by stating that the rape incident had adversely affected the Congress's prospects.

The obvious lobbying against Patnaik gained momentum with this, and the attacks on missionaries came to them as a god-send.

"Patnaikji would have broken Jyoti Basu's record for longest serving CM had these attacks not taken place," rued one of his loyalists.

Mishra's rape was followed by the ghastly burning to death of Australian missionary Graham Stewart Stains and his two children on January 22, and the writing on the wall was clear. It was now only a question of time before there was a change at the state's helm.

Interestingly, Biswas was one of the top contenders for the post, and one day before the legislature party met to elect its new leader, he had even received several bouquets congratulating him.

Before the new chief minister was elected, when a reporter asked him whether he should be the new leader of the party, he quipped: "Do you think I am unfit to rule?"

Though the police claim that Dara Singh, main accused in Stains' murder, was a Bajrang Dal activist, BJP leaders in Mayurbhanj district say he was actually a supporter of Jaydev Jena, a minister in Patnaik's government and who is a close associate of Biswal.

Orissa Bajrang Dal chief Pratapchand Sarangi said, "The attacks on Christian missionaries was planned by the Congress to oust Patnaik and also at the same time put the blame on us. I am saying this because Dara Singh was never a Bajrang Dal member."

For Patnaik, worse was yet to follow. The alleged rape of a nun and a tribal girl in the next fortnight finally forced the high command shut the door on him.

Unfortunately for Sonia Gandhi, if she had hoped that the CLP would meekly elect a new leader in Patnaik's place, the outgoing CM was determined to flex his muscle. A majority of the legislators petitioned the high command against replacing Patnaik, and seeing the deadlock, Madhavrao Scindia and Pranab Mukherjee intimated Sonia accordingly.

In fact, when the two Congress observers landed up at Bhubaneswar, the airport was filled with Congressmen chanting pro-Patnaik slogans.

Speaking to Rediff On The NeT, a Congress minister said, "The legislators wanted Patnaik to continue even after he gave in his resignation, they requested the high command to continue with him. But she was adamant on sacking him."

Strengthening the scape-goat theory was the fact that initial findings in the nun rape case, concluded that there had been no rape.

A Patnaik supporter told Rediff On The NeT that "Patnaikji was made a scapegoat because our party wanted to project an image that it is pro-minority. And that we can sacrifice our chief minister to guard minority interests whereas the BJP would not take any action against its CM in Gujarat".

Similarly, the rape of the Christian tribal was concluded as a criminal act, without any communal overtone, since the accused was also a Christian from the same village as the girl.

"Had we waited for the truth to come out, it would have been very clear that there was no law and order problem in Orissa. Patnaikji was made scapegoat. If you see the history of Orissa, there has never been communal disturbance, not even during the Ram-Janambhoomi movement," added the Patnaik supporter.

Nods Reverend Pradhan of the Church of North India in agreement, "Except these few incidents, Orissa always has always been a peaceful state."

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