BHUBANESWAR: Political leaders cutting across party lines condemned the attack on journalists outside a booth in Binjharpur block of Jajpur district while they were covering an alleged incident of booth capturing during the third phase panchayat polls on Sunday.
Expressing concern over the incident, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said frequent attacks on media persons is not a good sign in a democracy. He raised questions over the law and order situation in the State. “There can be disagreement in politics but there is no place for violence,” he added.
State BJP general secretary Golak Mohapatra alleged the ruling BJD is sponsoring such attacks because of the growing support for the BJP in the elections.
Booth capturing and rigging by the ruling BJD supporters have become rampant and journalists trying to cover such incidents are being brutally assaulted, he said and added many such incidents of violence are going unreported.
Condemning the incident, the president of the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee Niranjan Patnaik said that the attack on journalists and political opponents with the aim of manipulating the poll process is an attack on democracy and civil society. This is the modus operandi of the BJD during elections in Odisha, he added. A delegation of Congress leaders submitted a memorandum to the State Election Commission and demanded immediate transfer of Jajpur SP over the incident.
Organisational secretary of BJD Pranab Prakash Das took to Twitter to condemn the attack on the journalists. “There is no place for such acts of violence in a democracy. Odisha police will take strict action against the culprits in accordance with the law,” he said.
Meanwhile, senior journalists on Sunday met the SEC and demanded strict action against those involved in the attack on the scribes.