Needed: Mouth Curfew

It is not often that speakers of assemblies make pronouncements on affairs of state governments. Thus, it was only natural that eyebrows were raised when speaker Surya Narayan Patro, during an interaction with the media last Sunday, jumped the gun and said the government was considering re-imposition of “day curfew” in the state “in the 4-5 days” because of the upsurge in Covid cases. As if that was not enough, he also said chief minister Naveen Patnaik was discussing with senior health officials.

Predictably, all hell broke loose after the speaker’s remarks. Coming as it did from no less than the Speaker, speculation about the possible return of day curfew, lockdown/shutdown et al continued all day. The decision to impose night curfew in 10 western and southern districts bordering Chhattisgarh from Monday, announced by the state government, lent credence to the speaker’s statement. In any case, the rapid rise in coronavirus infections in Odisha since March 25 made it sound plausible.

Just as speculation swirled, special relief commissioner Pradip Jena tweeted that there was “no plan for imposing day curfew in the state before the government at this stage”. “The COVID-19 situation in the state is very much under control,” he asserted and urged people to follow Covid protocols—masks, physical distancing and hand hygiene.

Jena put an end to speculation—and apprehension—but also triggered an animated discussion in knowledgeable circles on whether this was not a slight for the speaker. “Why did the speaker speak on an issue which is by no means his domain?” asks an old-timer. “Perhaps he thought he was still a minister in the government!” quips a wag. Patro is among the longest-serving ministers in the Naveen Patnaik government and became speaker—a constitutional functionary— after the 2019 polls. Already under fire for “partisan conduct” by the BJP for expelling three members of the party on the last day of the assembly on April 3, this was one controversy Patro could have done without.

By Sandeep Sahu in Bhubaneswar