Despite BJD-BJP slugfest, 2008 Kandhamal riots may not cast shadow over 2024 polls

Kandhamal: A remark by Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leader VK Pandian last Saturday accusing the state’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of triggering communal riots in Kandhamal district 15 years ago has triggered a bitter back-and-forth between the two parties in the battle for power in the Lok Sabha and assembly elections. But the people who bore the brunt of the violence, and those who faced criminal cases for participating in bloody attacks, say they want to move on.

It did though hurt for a long time, recalled Sukant Nayak, a 74-year-old retired school teacher of the district. “Having seen the violence from close quarters, I could finally return to my village only six years ago with my family,” said Nayak.

It was on August 26, 2008 afternoon when Nayak, a Dalit-Christian teacher in Kandhamal, saw his house being set afire by a mob. His wife, hiding behind a bush near their house, froze as the semi-pucca house, paddy, two motorcycles and all belongings started burning while a marauding mob kept on screaming.

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Nayak, his wife, son, daughter-in-law, a two-month-old granddaughter and another two-year-old granddaughter ran for their lives to a hillock where they hid without food and water for three days till they were rescued.

“My daughter-in-law almost went mad for several months as the two-month-old granddaughter died in her lap when we were hiding. It took me and my family several years and counselling to get over the loss that we suffered in 2008”, said Nayak, sitting in his newly-built pucca house in Nilungia village, G Udaygiri block.

Hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi last Saturday launched an attack on Pandian, the bureaucrat-turned-politician and presumptive successor of chief minister Naveen Patnaik, accusing him of acting as a ‘super chief minister’, Pandian responded to the jibe saying whenever the BJP is in a losing position, its leaders talk of caste, region and religion.

“In Kandhamal, there was a bomb blast and bullets were fired. It (BJP) triggered riots in Kandhamal. Naveen Babu took strong steps and brought peace to Kandhamal,” said Pandian.

Two days later, the BJP hit back accusing the Patnaik-led government of withdrawing the security cover of Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Laxmanananda Saraswati whose murder on August 23, 2008, triggered the riots.

“Everything happened on the instructions of Naveen Patnaik and he is responsible as security cannot be withdrawn without the home department’s order”, alleged BJP MP Pratap Sarangi, asking why the report of the judicial commission that probed the murder, as well as, the riot has not been published as yet. A few months later, BJD and BJP severed their alliance over the riot as Patnaik accused the BJP of being a communal party.

As Kandhamal Lok Sabha constituency goes to polls on May 20, the 2008 riots in which 43 Christians and Hindus were killed and thousands of houses and churches in the district were demolished, is now a distant but painful memory for most tribal Hindus, tribal Christians as well as Dalit Hindus and Dalit Christians.

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For some like Nayak, the pain of the 2008 riots lingered a lot longer as they found it difficult to obliterate the bad memories. “Having seen the violence from close quarters, I could finally return to my village six years ago with my family,” said Nayak.

Spread over seven assembly constituencies and four districts – Kandhamal, Boudh, Ganjam and Nayagarh – the Kandhamal Lok Sabha constituency was carved out in the 2009 delimitation exercise and has 1.33 million voters. While BJD has renominated its sitting MP and education baron Achyut Samanta, BJP has given a ticket to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh veteran Sukanta Panigrahi and Congress has fielded former GST commissioner Amir Chand Nayak, who took voluntary retirement from government service in 2019.

The constituency is a BJD stronghold with the party winning all seven assembly seats in the last state election. In the 2019 elections, Samanta had defeated his nearest rival, Kharabela Swain of the BJP, by a wide margin of over 150,000 votes. In the 2009 Lok Sabha election for Kandhamal Lok Sabha constituency, the BJP candidate forfeited his security deposit.

It was only in the G Udaygiri assembly constituency that BJP candidate and riot convict Manoj Pradhan won with over 40% tribal Hindu voters. However, in subsequent elections of 2014 and 2019, the BJP failed to win any of the assembly seats and came third behind BJD and Congress.

Despite Pandian raking up the Kandhamal riots, many of the riot victims, as well as, those who were accused of participating in the riots, would rather forget the episode. For many, a job and drinking water is a more pressing issue than religion.

Shankar Pradhan, a tribal Hindu of Nilungia village, spent a couple of years in jail after being accused of participating in the riots. He was finally acquitted of the cases last year. “The riot cases took a toll on our family as we spent most of our earnings on lawyers and bribing the officials. The riot was inevitable, but we have forgotten it now,” said Shankar’s wife Radhefula.

In Dadda Padia village under Ratingia gram panchayat, Shravan Kumar Pradhan, a 26-year-old Kondh tribal, hopes to crack the Odisha Teachers’ Education test scheduled for December this year. Hailing from a landless family, Pradhan worked as a newspaper hawker and a daily wager as well as a house painter to complete his graduation from a local college. On Saturday, he could make it to PM Modi’s rally in Phulbani town, but by the time he could reach, it had ended. “I like Modi because he talks of employment for youths like us and a strong India,” said Pradhan.

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In Nilungia village, Kabir Nayak, a 60-year-old Dalit-Christian is unhappy over the erratic drinking water supply and lack of jobs. “My daughter-in-law has to walk at least a kilometre to get water as water comes every alternate day in the piped drinking water connection. My son has migrated to Kerala as there is little work available here,” he said.

His neighbour Airam Nayak, also a Christian, is more worried about the drinking water supply and delayed payment of MGNREGA. Having voted for the BJD in the last election, both say they would vote for Congress this election.

But in Katringia gram panchayat, most of the Dalit-Hindus say they would vote for the BJP only because of Modi. “Now no one remembers riots. We have been getting free rice from the Modi government since Covid. The Naveen Patnaik government could have added more rice and maybe pulses. The local school does not have enough teachers hampering the education of our children. I want a change in the state”, said Luisi Digal, another local.

Emmanuel Rath, a local Christian leader of Kandhamal, said that despite people rooting for change, the BJD would again romp home in the constituency due to its strong booth-level presence. “Though the Congress candidate is a local person, the party lacks resources to take on the might of BJD candidate Samanta, who has got hundreds of tribal students from the district admitted to his university. The BJD winning margin would come down due to anti-incumbency, but the party would win,” said Rath.

Kandhamal will go to polls on May 20.