| 2001 Odisha Assembly attack | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Location | Bhubaneshwar, India |
| Date | 16 December 2001 (UTC+05:30) |
| Target | Orissa Assembly building |
Attack type | rioting, arson, assault and damaging government property. |
| Injured | Many, including Biju Janata Dal legislator Ashok Panigrahi and some policemen. |
The 2001 Odisha Assembly attack was a high-profile attack by Bajrang Dal, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Durga Vahini.
On 16 December 2001, the activists of Bajrang Dal, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Durga Vahini who had been on a protest about 300 metres from the Assembly building, surged forth minutes after the House was adjourned for lunch. The protest was held to demand the handing over of the land in Ayodhya to the Ramjanmabhoomi Nyas for the construction of Hindu temple, the release of Giriraj Kishore and the withdrawal of "anti-VHP" comments made by some MLAs in the Orissa Assembly one day earlier. [1]
The activists of these organisations stormed the Odisha Assembly building through the main entrance. Sporting saffron headbands and chanting "Jai Sriram" and "Atal Behari Vajpayee zindabad", the trident- lathi-wielding men rushed inside, indulging in vandalism for over 30 minutes, beating every individual they came across, including Biju Janata Dal legislator Ashok Panigrahi and several journalists and policemen. They broke glass doors and window panes, smashed flowerpots placed along the corridors, and ransacked the library and the chambers of ministers. The security personnel posted in and around the high-security complex failed to control the mob. [1]
The day after the unprecedented attack on the Assembly the State government suspended 20 police personnel for dereliction of duty. Sixty-seven people, including Bipin Bihari Rath, Pratap Sarangi, who was the then State unit president of the Bajrang Dal, and nine women were arrested on charges of rioting, arson, assault and damaging government property. The attack on the Assembly has further weakened the BJD-BJP coalition arrangement in Odisha which finally ended in 2009. [1] [2]
The Congress and Communists demanded banning of Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad. From the Sangh Parivar whose frontal organisations are alleged to be involved in the incident, Balbir K Punj, BJP MP, wrote on the website of the Hindu Vivek Kendra, a self-claimed resource center for the promotion of Hindutva, that vandalism, even though condemnable, could not be equated with terrorism. He asserted that 16 December attack on Odisha Assembly should not be equated with the 13 December attack as asserted by the Congress and the Marxists. He cited two similar incidents of Odisha Assembly attacks in the past – one by agitating students with Leftist leaning forcing into the State Assembly in 1964 when Biren Mitra headed a Congress Government in the state and another in 1978 when during the Chief Ministership of Nilamani Routray of Janata Party the Congress activists stormed the assembly prompted by the arrest of Indira Gandhi. [3]
Bajrang Dal is a Hindu nationalist militant organisation that forms the youth wing of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP). It is a member of the right-wing Sangh Parivar. The ideology of the organisation is based on Hindutva. It was founded on 1 October 1984 in Uttar Pradesh, and began spreading more in the 2010s throughout India, although its most significant base remains the northern and central portions of the country.
The Sangh Parivar refers, as an umbrella term, to the collection of Hindutva organisations spawned by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which remain affiliated to it. These include the political party Bharatiya Janata Party, religious organisation Vishva Hindu Parishad, students union Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), religious militant organisation Bajrang Dal that forms the youth wing of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), and the worker's union Bharatiya Kisan Sangh.
The Odisha Gana Parishad, was an Indian political party in the Indian state of Odisha, a splinter group of Biju Janata Dal. The party was founded on October 29, 2000. The president of OGP was Sri Bijoy Mohapatra. Mahapatra had been expelled from BJD in February 2000. Mahapatra had come into conflict with BJD leader Sri Nabeen Pattanaik over the election of Sri Dilip Ray to the Rajya Sabha.
Naveen Patnaik is an Indian politician and writer, who served as the 14th Chief Minister of Odisha from 5 March 2000 to 12 June 2024. His 24-year reign is the second longest for a chief minister of any Indian state, after Pawan Kumar Chamling of Sikkim. He is the first president of the Biju Janata Dal since 1997. He served as the Union Minister of Steel and Mines from 1998 to 2000 and a member of the Lok Sabha from Aska from 1997 to 2000.
Durga Vahini is the women's wing of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP). It was established in 1991 and its founding chairperson is Sadhvi Rithambara. The Vishva Hindu Parishad states the purpose of the Durga Vahini is to empower women, encourage more women to participate in spiritual and cultural activities. Kalpana Vyash, a senior leader of the organization, said that the Durga Vahini members dedicate themselves "to physical, mental and intellectual development". The aim of the organization is to establish Hindu solidarity by helping Hindu families during the time of hardship and by providing social services. According to Vyash, the total membership of the group is 8,000 as of 2002, and 1,000 members are from Ahmedabad.
The politics of Odisha are part of India's federal parliamentary representative democracy, where the union government exercises sovereign rights. Certain powers are reserved to the states, including Odisha. The state has a multi-party system, in which the two main parties are the nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the regional, socialist Biju Janata Dal (BJD). The Indian National Congress (INC) has also significant presence.
Pramod Muthalik is the chief of the Rashtriya Hindu Sena, the parent organisation of the Sri Ram Sena.
The 2009 Odisha Legislative Assembly election took place in April 2009, concurrently with the general election. The elections were held in the state in two phases. The results were declared on 16 May. Despite having recently separated from the Bharatiya Janata Party after an eleven-year partnership, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) retained power in the Odisha State Assembly with a more convincing majority. Party chief Naveen Patnaik was formally re-elected as the BJD Legislature party leader on 19 May, thus paving the way for his third consecutive term as the Chief Minister of Odisha.
Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) is an Indian right-wing Hindu organisation based on Hindu nationalism. The VHP was founded in 1964 by M. S. Golwalkar and S. S. Apte in collaboration with Swami Chinmayananda. Its stated objective is "to organise, consolidate the Hindu society and to serve and protect the Hindu Dharma". It was established to construct and renovate Hindu temples, and deal with matters of cow slaughter and religious conversion. The VHP is a member of the Sangh Parivar group, the family of Hindu nationalist organisations led by the RSS.
Subash Chouhan was the national President of the Bajrang Dal, a Hindutva organization in India that is the youth wing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP).
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Pratap Chandra Sarangi is an Indian politician from Balasore, Odisha. He serves as a National Executive Member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and a member of parliament from the Balasore Lok Sabha constituency in Odisha. He was the Minister of State in the Government of India for Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (2019-2021) and a two-time member of the Odisha Legislative Assembly from Nilgiri (2004-2014). Sarangi was Odisha's state unit chief of the Bajrang Dal when Graham Staines, an Australian Christian Missionary, and his two minor children were burnt alive by the members of the right-wing outfit in 1999. Later he was involved in 2001 Odisha Assembly attack.
Bijoy Mohapatra is a politician from Odisha. A leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party, he was Irrigation Minister of Odisha from 1990 to 1995 in the Biju Patnaik cabinet. He was the most powerful minister in Biju Patnaik's cabinet. He was four times MLA from Patkura Constituency of Kendrapara district. He won four straight elections in 1980, 1985, 1990 and 1995.
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Elections to the Odisha Legislative Assembly were held in April 2004 to elect members of the 147 constituencies in Odisha, India. The Bhartiya Janata Party and Biju Janata Dal fought election together as NDA. The National Democratic Alliance won the most seats and Naveen Patnaik was re-appointed as the Chief Minister of Odisha. The number of constituencies was set as 147 by the recommendation of the Delimitation Commission of India.