Odisha's Violent Shift: BJP's one-Year in Power Sparks Concern

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Dalit Assaults, Rath Yatra Stampede, and Officer Beating Raise Fears of Normalized Political Violence in Previously Peaceful State

By PRADEEP KUMAR PANDA

BHUBANESWAR, July 8, 2025 — Once known for its political restraint, Odisha has in the past year seen a worrying escalation in violent incidents that has shocked the public and reshaped the state’s political narrative. Since the BJP-led government assumed power on June 12, 2024, the state has made headlines for all the wrong reasons—barbaric attacks, administrative failures, and growing political aggression.

In one recent incident, two Dalit men suspected of cattle smuggling were publicly beaten in Ganjam by self-styled cow vigilantes. Not long after, a preventable stampede during the Jagannath Rath Yatra in Puri claimed three lives and left more than 50 injured. And just days later, BJP workers brutally assaulted a municipal officer in Bhubaneswar.

These episodes, among the most shocking in recent memory, have sparked outrage and debate. Odisha—a state with a reputation for peaceful politics despite deep-rooted caste and class divisions—has rarely experienced such frequent and visible violence. The contrast with the 24-year-long BJD rule under Naveen Patnaik, which focused on administrative discipline and welfare, is stark.

Political observers note a disturbing trend: two of these incidents involved direct political vigilantism—something previously alien to Odisha. While intense political rivalries and caste hierarchies have long existed, overtly violent political assertion by ground-level party workers, especially mimicking northern state patterns, was never the norm here.

The tragic stampede in Puri stands out. While minor accidents during the Rath Yatra are not unheard of, this year’s chaos is seen as a consequence of the BJP government’s decision to transform the religious event into a grand spectacle. Thousands of VVIP invites, including to industrialists like Gautam Adani, turned the Yatra into a stage-managed show. Critics say this focus on optics came at the expense of crowd safety.

The Congress has alleged that more than 5,000 inner cordon passes were distributed to BJP politicians from across India, effectively turning the public event into a private gala for billionaires and media crews.

Historically, Odisha’s caste structure has been exclusionary but not explosively violent. Discrimination against Dalits, Muslims, and marginalized OBCs was pervasive yet more structural than openly brutal. That is changing. Many now believe that since the BJP came to power, its leaders—who spent years in opposition—are increasingly normalizing caste and communal violence as tools of political dominance.

Though the BJP has tried to woo tribal and Dalit communities, its base of dominant landed caste groups—including upper castes and powerful OBCs—has become emboldened. These groups, previously restrained under Patnaik’s bureaucracy-focused model, are now asserting their presence aggressively through Hindutva politics.

In May 2025, Muslim Bengali migrant workers were attacked by Hindutva workers in Sambalpur, prompting an exodus and diplomatic friction with West Bengal. In 2024, soon after the BJP took power, communal violence broke out in Bhadrak and Balasore—towns with sizeable Muslim populations.

The administrative machinery, once tightly controlled under BJD, is under stress. The brutal public assault on a municipal officer in Bhubaneswar triggered a statewide strike by the Odisha Administrative Officers (OAS) Association. The OAS union, refusing to back down, has demanded action against the perpetrators and security for officers across districts.

The Manjhi-led government has tried to contain the crisis, but public services have ground to a halt in many parts of the state.

This growing unrest is not incidental—it reflects a deeper societal and political churn. As Odisha grapples with this new order, many fear the erosion of its hard-earned democratic and administrative stability. What was once a state that rarely made national headlines for conflict is now confronting the unsettling question: is violence becoming the new normal?

(This is an opinion piece, and views expressed are solely that of the author)

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