Bhubaneswar, Sept. 26: The Monsoon Session of the Odisha Legislative Assembly, which began on September 18 and was scheduled to end on September 25, concluded a day earlier when Speaker Surama Padhi adjourned proceedings sine die. What was supposed to be a seven-day working session turned into a washout, with barely three and a half days of effective business. The rest was lost to repeated disruptions by the opposition—primarily the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and Congress legislators.

For a democratic institution that is often described as the “temple of the people,” the session’s paralysis is more than an irony. It is a reflection of how Odisha’s politics is increasingly trapped in a cycle of mud-slinging, obstruction, and performative outrage, rather than serious deliberation on people’s problems.

Interestingly, the strongest criticism did not come from outside but from within the opposition itself. Former minister and senior BJD legislator Dr. Arun Kumar Sahoo candidly admitted that by stalling proceedings, legislators were denying the common people their right to see their issues debated on the Assembly floor. “When the Assembly runs, administration becomes cautious and responsive. When it doesn’t, the people lose,” Sahoo remarked.

His statement found backing from another senior BJD leader, Ganeshwar Behera, who said that if elected representatives cannot raise the concerns of their constituencies in the Assembly, then democracy itself suffers a severe blow. Their remarks triggered ripples within the BJD, exposing discomfort and raising questions about the “invisible power” that seems to be pushing the party into an aggressive posture at the cost of constructive politics.

The irony is stark. The opposition had plenty of ammunition: the Balanga student’s mysterious death, the suicide of Balasore FM College student Soumyashree, farmer distress, unemployment, and rising cases of women’s vulnerability. A disciplined strategy could have cornered the government on these fronts, drawing public sympathy and political advantage. Instead, chaos inside the House ensured that these issues barely came up for meaningful debate.

By reducing the Assembly to repeated adjournments, the opposition effectively allowed the ruling BJP to remain stress-free. What could have been a platform to hold the government accountable turned into a stage for noise and disruption.

Every day the Assembly fails to function, crores of public money go down the drain. Beyond financial waste, however, lies something more damaging: the erosion of democratic culture. Historically, Odisha’s Assembly has witnessed sharp but substantive debates, where leaders crossed swords with arguments and intellect, not noise and disruption. From those debates, policies and reforms emerged that shaped the state’s progress.

Today, that tradition appears endangered. Instead of debates, we see displays of force. Instead of policy scrutiny, we see political theatre. As a result, the House drifts further away from its true purpose: to serve as a womb of ideas, laws, and solutions.

The disquiet within the BJD—reflected in Sahoo and Behera’s statements—hints at something deeper. Many within the party whisper about an “invisible power” exerting pressure, pushing the opposition to adopt a confrontational rather than cooperative stance. This has led to growing speculation about who controls the levers of opposition strategy—and whether it aligns with the broader interests of democracy or only with narrow political calculus.

If democracy is a temple, its rituals demand sincerity, concentration, and responsibility. The Monsoon Session has instead revealed a crisis of purpose. Unless Odisha’s legislators—both ruling and opposition—recover the lost art of debate and deliberation, they risk turning the Assembly into a theatre of noise rather than a forum of governance.

The questions raised by Arun Kumar Sahoo and Ganeshwar Behera are therefore more than just internal dissent. They shine a light on the larger democratic decay and the shadowy influence of an “invisible power” that has paralysed the Assembly. Who that power is remains unclear, but its cost is borne by the people of Odisha.

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