Ashok Sahu on hunger strike
killers even after 5 years?
Senior BJP leader Shri Ashok Sahu, who contested Lok Sabha polls from Kandhamal constituency in 2009, observed hunger strike demanding punishment to the killers of Odisha’s popular saint Swami Laxmananananda Saraswati, who was killed five year ago.
When Shri Sahu started the fast, he condition suddenly deteriorated and he was admitted in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of SCB Medical College in Cuttack on August 26. He broke his fast one August 28 evening. Before sitting on the fast he had dashed a one page letter urging the state Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik seeking arrest of the killers and conspirators of Swamiji before his death anniversary on August 23, 2013. As the Chief Minister didn't act on the ultimatum, the firebrand orator rushed to the district headquarter town Phulbani and sat on fast.
In his letter to Chief Minister he said that five years is a long period to bring the killers of Swami Laxmananand Saraswati, who fell to the bullets of anti-Hindu and anti-Indian group of criminals, to book. The killers and the conspirators for his brutal murder are still at large, though the incident had taken place on the August 23, 2008. On the other hand, the violence that erupted soon after his murder as a spontaneous outburst among his numerous disciples in Kandhamal district has been investigated and in many cases the trial is also over.
In the name of investigation, numerous poor and innocent tribal people have been subjected to untold injustice as they failed to defend themselves. In a false case of rape of an alleged Nun, 32 persons were arrested many of whom are still languishing behind the bar without trial.
The people of Odisha as a whole were defamed and humiliated on false charges of communalism and the PM called it a “National shame” while addressing foreign crowds abroad.
Writing to Chief Minister Shri Sahu said, “You as our leader never thought it appropriate to defend Odisha against these false charges. People of Odisha silently endured with patience for long five years with the hope that the truth in both the cases will come out and our lost prestige would be restored. But all went in vain”, Shri Sahu said.
“My fight will continue. We cannot spare the killers and those who plotted his killing. The CM might be speaking the language of the Maoist leader Sabyasachi Panda, who reiterated his complicity with the crime, but we want to know the other part, his nexus with the Church who paid him a huge sum for which he along with his are expelled from the main Maoist fold.” Shri Sahu said after breaking the fast. To express solidarity with him, former Union Minister Jual Oram, senior leader Biswabhushan Harichandan, Bijay Mahapatra and Nayan Mohanty met him at the SCB Medical College. BJP general secretary Dharmendra Pradhan had also urged him to break the fast.
—Samanvaya Nanda
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