Odisha: The alarming state of lawlessness

In June 2025, four days shy of completing his first year as chief minister, Mohan Charan Majhi made a grand declaration: Odisha would no longer be “just a minerals and metals hub” — it was on the expressway to becoming an “industrial powerhouse”, a showpiece of India’s growth story.

Three months down the line, that “bold new era” has slid into an alarming state of lawlessness. Attacks against women and Muslims have spiked. Majhi, who holds the home portfolio, is feeling the heat.

On 4 October, the last day of Durga Puja, communal violence erupted when the Jhanjirimangala puja committee’s procession passed through Hatipokhari near Dargah Bazar, a Muslim-majority area, blaring DJ music and shouting “Jai Shri Ram”.

The situation quickly spiralled, with both sides attacking each other with stones and glass bottles. Six people, including Cuttack’s deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Rishikesh Khilari Dnyandeo, were injured. A city known for Hindu–Muslim bhaichara (brotherhood) — where Muslim artisans have traditionally crafted idols of the goddess, and joined in 500-year-old puja celebrations with the same gusto as Eid — turned into a tinderbox.

Local Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) leaders seized the opportunity to call for a Cuttack bandh on 6 October to protest what they called an ‘attack on Hindus’. In defiance of the local administration’s appeal to maintain peace and desist from any kind of provocative activity, the VHP went ahead with a motorcycle rally on the evening of 5 October.

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Berserk bike-borne VHP members damaged shops along their route, beating up anyone who opposed them. Further clashes followed, leaving 25 people, including eight police personnel, injured.

The administration imposed a 36-hour curfew across several police station limits, along with a 24-hour internet shutdown to curb the spread of provocative content on social media. While the curfew ensured that the bandh was practically incident-free, such unprecedented violence left residents shocked and anguished.

Former Odisha waqf board chairperson Syed Ekram Hussain has no doubt that this was part of a well-planned conspiracy to disrupt communal harmony in Cuttack. “I don’t remember any such incident happening here in the last three decades,” he said.

While chief minister Majhi also expressed his anguish, the VHP remains unapologetic. In fact, VHP leaders like Pabitra Mohan Das have blamed the police for mishandling and aggravating the situation.

Opposition parties have not pulled their punches. Former chief minister and leader of opposition Naveen Patnaik said the developments were a painful and poor reflection on a historically peace-loving state. “It’s alarming that this unpleasant situation has arisen in Cuttack, which we know as the ‘city of brotherhood’,” Patnaik said, adding that the police were under pressure from the BJP government.

“Our city is a living example of unity and tradition,” said Cuttack-Barabati MLA Sofia Firdous. “Those who tried to disrupt this harmony must be punished as per law following identification through CCTV and drone footage.”

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State Congress spokesperson Amiya Pandav lashed out, calling law and order “the first casualty” of the current government’s inefficiency. “Ever since it came to power, there have been several incidents of women being raped and members of minority communities being attacked. Now a BJP leader (Odisha State Bar Council member Pitabas Panda) has been shot dead outside his house in Berhampur. If they can’t guarantee the security of their own party members, how can they run the state?” asked Pandav.

Condemning the murder of the lawyer-cum-politician, who was also an RTI activist previously associated with the Congress, Majhi said immediate steps would be taken to nab the culprits.

Former Congress MLA Lalatendu Mohapatra underscores the crisis. “They are busy pushing their communal agenda and completely neglecting law and order. Neither women nor minorities are safe,” he said.

Mohapatra has a point. Since the Majhi government came to power last year, rape cases have spiked. The most shocking of these cases was the gang-rape of a college girl on 16 June. The incident took place on Gopalpur beach, a well-known tourist spot, during the Raja festival, which apparently celebrates womanhood. Four of the 10 assailants were juveniles.

Most infamous among the attacks on minorities is the Balasore incident of December 2024 where two women were tied to a tree and assaulted by a mob that demanded they join them in chanting “Jai Shri Ram”.

Cow vigilantes too have become hyperactive in different parts of the state, with Balasore once again hitting the headlines in March 2025 when Bajrang Dal activists vandalised vehicles supposedly ‘smuggling cows’. Innocent and unsuspecting people live in daily fear of being attacked, which does not sit well with Majhi’s promise of an ‘Utkarsh (excellent) Odisha’.