Closing Ceremony of ‘Bhashapaksha’ Observed by Odia Bhasa Bikasha Andolana

Balasore, 11/5 – (Krushna Kumar Mohanty)
The closing ceremony of ‘Bhashapaksha’, organized by the Odia Bhasa Bikasha Andolana, was held at the conference hall of ‘Srashta’ Natyalaya, co-chaired by Niranjan Raut and Nibaran Jena. The programme served as a symbolic protest against continued governmental neglect—including an eight-year delay in literary award distribution, irregularities in the prestigious Atibadi Jagannath Das Award and Saraswata Samman, non-reconstitution of the General Council, and prolonged vacancies in the posts of President and Vice-President of the Odia Sahitya Akademi. In response, the event featured poetry recitations, speeches, and a stage play as forms of cultural dissent.

A central highlight of the event was a poetry recitation festival themed “Listen, Listen O Government, We Need Our Language and Literature”, curated by Jumaranath Patra and Shantilata Panda. Over forty poets and poetesses participated, voicing their anguish and literary resistance through heartfelt poems.

Dr. Harischandra Behera presided over the session, while dramatist Hemendra Mahapatra and poet Sridev, director of Chandrabhaga, addressed the gathering. Prominent literary figures including Sarat Kumar Mahapatra, Rajendranath Raut, Dr. Bhagabat Prasad Das, Aruna Ray, Dr. Hemamala Das, and Pradip Chatterjee shared their insights and collectively appealed to the government to act on their legitimate demands.

Further, a short play titled “Listen, Listen O Government”, written by Dr. Laxmikanta Tripathy and directed by Niranjan Raut, was staged by Jumaranath Patra, Shantilata Bishi, Sanjay Kumar Panda, Prabhakar Sahu, Prafulla Kumar Das, Krishna Pradhan, Dr. Sarangadhar Tripathy, and Kalyani Nanda.

The musical segment, under the direction of Kalyani Nanda, featured performances by Truptirani Patra, Subrata Mohanty, Snigdha Samantaray, Pushpalata Chakraborty, Krishna Pradhan, Avanti Pradhan, Dr. Tanshree Panigrahi, Jumaranath Patra, and Prabhakar Sahu.

Dr. Laxmikanta Tripathy, the General Secretary, delivered the opening remarks. The entire event was skillfully anchored by poet Deepak Bose. Notable participants in the self-composed poetry recitation included Dr. Kshitishwar Das, Kamalakanta Das, Prabhat Kumar Acharya, Hadibandhu Patra, Kavita Jena, Manmath Kumar Sahu, Madhusudan Majhi, Damodar Nayak, Dr. Ratnakar Singh, Deepak Das, Karunakar S., Mamata Das, Padmalochan Pradhan, Hemanta Kumar Jena, Padmalochan Dutta, Asitajyoti Patra, and Debasish Singh, among others.