Controversy over Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Nishikant Dubey’s remarks on former Odisha Chief Minister Biju Patnaik escalated on Monday, with the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) walking out of the Rajya Sabha and party president Naveen Patnaik terming the comments “obscene”. Not only the opposition leaders, but Dubey’s colleague in the party, Bijayant Panda, criticized these statements, describing the criticism directed at the late leader as “ridiculous.”
In a statement issued on March 27, Dubey claimed that Biju Patnaik was the liaison between former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), during the 1962 Indo-China war.
Soon after the Rajya Sabha convened for the day, BJD MP Sasmit Batra said: “We want to register our serious protest against the insulting, false and fabricated statements made by Nishikant Dubey against Biju Patnaik.”
Patra, who on Sunday resigned from the Parliamentary Standing Committee on ICT, in protest against committee chairman Dubey’s remarks, said the BJP MP referred to Patnaik as a “CIA agent”. He said: “This is the level the ruling party has reached… This is completely shameful,” announcing the party’s withdrawal.
BJD chief Naveen Patnaik also condemned Dubey’s statements. “I think the BJP MP needs some mental health care for saying these heinous things,” the former Odisha chief told reporters outside the state assembly.
BJP national vice president and Lok Sabha MP Jay Panda also criticized the remarks against Biju Patnaik.
“Biju’s uncle was an iconic figure. He was not only the tallest leader of Odisha in his time, but was among the nation’s leading figures. Most importantly, he was one of the greatest patriots of modern Bharat…” Panda said in a post on X. “Questioning his patriotism is patently fanciful and ridiculous. Such attacks on him are unworthy, ill-considered and completely unacceptable,” Panda said in a post on X.
As the row escalated, Dubey refuted allegations that he had no respect for Biju Patnaik. “When the Congress treated Biju Babu unjustly, the Jana Sangh and the BJP stood by him. What I said that day, and what I am repeating again today, is that I am running an unbroken chain exposing the actions of the Nehru-Gandhi family and the Congress,” Dubey told reporters in the Parliament complex on Monday. “What is the allegation you have made against Biju Babu? … I was talking about the actions of the Nehru family, and that’s all I said. If anyone gets hurt because of that, I can only try to explain my position to them.”
(With inputs from Debabrata Mohanty in Bhubaneswar)
