Odisha: Sarpanch Chameli Ojha of BJP Faces Political Firestorm Within Party, Survives

The three day-long Rajo festival dedicated to Mother Earth in Odisha seems ironical when seeing the ground reality in Odisha.

‘Beti bachao, Beti padhao’ (Save the Daughter, Educate the Daughter), the 12-year old slogan tom-tommed by the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Centre, may seem glossy for womanhood, but not for a young woman in Odisha’s Kendrapada district, who was reportedly subjected to “untold mental and physical ordeals at home, in a government office, in police station and at last, in jail.”

Chamelli Ojha, a ‘sarpanch’ (village head) at Tikhiri Panchayat, in Kendrapada’s Mahakalapada block, as per reports, in her desire to hog the headlines for wrong reasons, reportedly paid a heavy price for her “commitment to stand up for the interest of the people”, as she allegedly walked into a “trap laid” by the administration and her political colleagues. In trying to save a local jana seva kendra from demolition, she protested and took on the BDO and some local politicians, but was instead arrested on charges of “obstructing work”.

A contrarian view propounded by the official apparatus, local politicians and a section of the local media, projects Ojha as “an arrogant young lady who is good at scheming things and drawing her road map as it suits her to be in the news, who always looks for a pound of flesh where budgetary issues are concerned and is more known as a fortune-hunter”.

But what is amusing is that Ojha is a BJP cadre, and is now facing the wrath of local BJP leaders and a local administrative wing ostensibly supported by the ruling saffron fraternity.     

“A government’s job is to act decisively, not drag the state’s dignity down. The Odisha government must stand up and in the case of Chameli’s weeklong consternation. The Chief Minister must intervene immediately and clear the confusion and fix the responsibilities”, Prafulla Samantaray, a human rights activist in Odisha, said. He reportedly was the first to visit Ojha.

“She was in a state of mental delirium, unable to describe the ordeals she was forced to undergo during her interaction with the local authorities for a cause”, Samantaray alleged.

As per her interaction with Samantaray, Ojha said she was simply pleading against the demolition of a ‘Jana Seva Kendra’ at one end of the location where about 121 buildings stand.

Prior to that, some time ago, Ojha had been able to demolish a liquor outlet in the same locality along with other women and since then had become an eyesore for many, including some local politicians.  

“Why the Jana Seva Kendra alone, was my plea” Ojha is said to have told Samantray “let the other hundred odd structures be removed and I shall volunteer myself to demolish the Kendra despite the fact that it serves the needs of the entire village. This, perhaps, was a bone of contention, which I was trying to tell the local Block Development Officer (BDO) but in vain. I was simply trying to apprise him about many developmental projects”, she told this reporter.

Ojha has been pinned down for a legal oversight that her brother was making a video of her talk with the BDO, who took sharp objection to that saying that such recordings were unlawful.          

She was arrested for obstructing the work inside the BDO’s office and was subsequently taken away by the local police and was allegedly subjected to physical assault. She claimed she was hit by fists on her chest and back and, the police tried to snatch her cell phone that had footage that was inimical to the interest of the BDO and his political supporters. Samantraty said her only fault was that “she refused to fall in line with the rest for the unholy alliance”.

The charges against Ojha were so framed that she was ultimately arrested and taken to custody for alleged ‘misconduct’ while in hospital bed. A woman sarpanch was battling for normalcy, but it is shocking that instead of being given security cover, the cops became her tormentors, it is alleged.

Let alone Chief Minister Mohan Majhi, none from the ruling BJP came to Ojha’s help during her phase of mental turmoil, not even the Kendrapara Member of Parliament Baijayant Panda. The local BJP MLA, Durga Prasad Nayak, who was allegedly the key “invisible force” to cow down Ojha, has reportedly used abusive language against her, several local reports indicate.

This is among a series of such excesses committed against women in Odisha in the past two years of the Majhi government. Today, Odisha ranks top among states in incidents of atrocity on women. However, Chameli Ojha’s case is unique, as she is a BJP member and a sarpanch from her party. She has been weathering a potential political firestorm within her party and outside, and was granted bail at last.

The writer is a senior freelance journalist based in Odisha. The views are personal.