New Delhi: Newly-appointed chief minister of Odisha Mohan Charan Majhi has already landed himself in a controversy. Immediately after he was sworn in on Wednesday, news reports surfaced that he supported Sudarshan TV’s editor Suresh Chavhanke to demand the release of Bajrang Dal activist Dara Singh, who was convicted for the 1999 murder of Christian missionary Graham Staines and his two children.
Known for his rabid Islamophobia, Chavhanke has been leading a campaign to get Dara Singh released. In September 2022, Chavhanke was denied permission to meet Singh in Keonjhar jail, following which the Sudarshan TV editor and BJP leaders who had accompanied him, including Majhi, staged a dharna to press the jail authorities.
In 1999, Dara Singh led a mob to set the wagon in which Graham Staines and his two sons were sleeping on fire. Staines, who ran a home for lepers, and his two sons were charred to death. In 2003, the trial court in Khordha sentenced Singh to death, while 12 others were sentenced to life. The Odisha high court later commuted Singh’s death sentence to life.
Singh was also convicted and given life sentence in two other murder cases of a Muslim trader and another Christian missionary.
After Keonjhar jail authorities said that Singh will only be allowed to meet his family members and lawyers in 2022, Chavhanke, Majhi and other BJP leaders demonstrated against the decision. Majhi, who was BJP’s chief whip in 2022, told The Hindu, “…this is just a demand. If the situation warrants, we would discuss in the party to back him (Singh).”
The RSS trainer turned MLA who had sat on a Dharna for the release of Bajrang Dal leader Dara Singh,Who had burnt alive DR.Graham Staines n his 2 sons has been chosen for the post of new CM of Odisha.
What a shame,
Supporter of A Murderer is our CM ! @Ashok_Kashmir @irfhabib pic.twitter.com/MkBKFYfwPV— Amiya_Pandav ଅମିୟ ପାଣ୍ଡଵ Write n Fight (@AmiyaPandav) June 12, 2024
Fifty-two-year-old Majhi was born in a Santhal tribal family, and joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in Keonjhar very early in his life. He taught in the Sangh parivar-run Saraswati Shishu Mandir school, before taking up full-time politics in the BJP. He started as a sarpanch, and later represented the tribal-dominated Keonjhar assembly seat for four terms. Majhi lost the assembly elections in 2009 and 2014.
As a legislator, he drew attention to environmental violations and corrupt practices in the mining-rich Keonjhar. Senior journalists said that he kept a track of how the district mineral fund was being used under the Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal government. He served as the BJP’s chief whip in the last assembly, and grew in prominence for moving 15 private member bills. He is said to have participated in the maximum number of discussions among the 23 BJP legislators.
His background in the Sangh parivar and visibility during the last assembly term is said to have influenced the central leadership’s decision to choose him as the chief minister over other senior BJP leaders in the state.
Majhi’s first day at the helm of Odisha government began on a decidedly religious note. In its first cabinet meeting on Thursday morning, the Majhi government approved a proposal to reopen all four gates of the Jagannath Temple in Puri and set up a corpus fund for the 12th-century shrine’s conservation.
