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Patnaik reveals his ignorance about conversion

Bibhuti Mishra in Bhubaneswar

Talk of an ill-prepared chief minister and you could be talking of Orissa's J B Patnaik.

Our barb is a reaction to Patnaik's ignorance about the Orissa Freedom of Religion Act, despite the torching of Australian missionary Graham Stains and his two sons.

Before we go ahead, a briefing on the said Act:

Presented in 1967 in the state assembly, the Freedom of Religion Bill envisaged regular reports on conversion from district collectors. It became a statute in 1989, but was blatantly flouted, and few collectors bothered to take the pain.

Even more unfortunate is that Patnaik knows little about the Act. Queried whether communal tensions could have been kept under control if the Act was followed, Patnaik was caught off-guard. It was obvious his knowledge of the provision was near zero, to mask which he came out with a flippant - and outrageous - answer:

"The district collectors have more important things to do!"

Luckily, Patnaik's chief secretary was more knowledgeable. He revealed that since 1989 eight cases have been registered under the Act. While one was withdrawn, two are pending. In five cases, the accused have been released.

"With communal tensions in many tribal areas like R Udaygiri, Koraput and Keenjhar, indifference of this sort attitude of doesn't reflect well..." sighed a scribe sadly, religiously scribbling the offered statistics.

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