Updated on Wednesday, October 01, 2008, 00:00 IST

D N Singh

Kandhamal, Oct 01: A few incidents during last week have once again played the role of a catalyst to bring the beleaguered district of Orissa, Kandhamal back into dubious focus.

Arsons, use of fire arms, physical clash and a few deaths; slowly it is all getting stereotyped for people outside the district and is becoming too commonplace to raise the eyebrows in the media regime also. But for the lakhs of people inhabiting this hilly district it is an unending nightmare which has gone beyond their tolerance.

What seems so far conspicuously missing is an effort from either of the camps to harmonize the situation. Surprisingly, the harried Chief Minister of Orissa, Naveen Patnaik, who often claims that his designation is always secondary compared to people's wellbeing, has never made any concrete effort towards a solution through dialogue. Although he doesn’t quite fit into the image of an opportunist politician and rather prefers to be progressively secular without any show of nasty political tricks to play on a vote bank, but his handling of the Kandhamal unrest so far somehow shows that probably he has some strange disdain for peace; thus refusing to learn any lesson from the Kalinganagar violence which had inflicted the wound he is nursing till date.

What has added further impetus to the riot are the inflammatory utterances through the writings and through media by a section of people who take their cue from their digenous stakeholders. One can come across articles from outside agencies and individuals who appear so uninformed about many realities in Kandhamal and its social chemistry. It is not to mean that, this or that side is holding any brief for a certain community but, the portrayals of the situation often appear so provocative to whip up follow ups. That is exactly what is happening.

One side of the divide now holds the view that, the presence of the security forces, and the CRPF in particular, in Kandhamal can give more teeth to the conflagration because, they are unleashing a terror in the name of law & order and hounding after innocent tribals instead of the real culprits. If that is happening then it would not augur well for the political bosses and Patnaik need to stop seeing things through bureaucratic eyes. Does that mean that the state should withdraw the forces? No organization is above the people who matter there and have been living for generations.

On the other side of the divide there are voices which appear purportedly stretched too far. Mostly relying on the feedbacks from the city-based outfits and giving the sentiments a piggyback ride through reporting which can never help to disentangle the people from the grip of the unrest. Lets not a make a mix of community and the reality there.

The aggression brewing in both the camps can not be lost sight of. On September 29 it was in Raikia area where there was an exchange of firing from both the sides in which a woman died. Even three days after the killing of Swamy Lakshamananand, in the month of August, the same area was a witness to a similar conflagration when fire exchange from both camps had claimed two lives.

What the series of incidents imply is disturbing. Notwithstanding their religious allegiance, people from both the communities form the social base of Kandhamal but, the invansion by outside interests down the years has clearly shown that they have made deliberate attempts to drive a wedge among these traditionally liberal minded people and create an unhealthy sense of detachment through tools of religion. That's exactly the kind of stream the politicians choose to swim in.