Much to the discomfiture of his Minister Damodar Rout for his views on Jayi Rajaguru, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on the occasion of the death anniversary of Rajaguru on Wednesday stated that Rajaguru was the first Odia martyr in the country’s independence struggle.
Patnaik in a Tweet said this while paying tributes to the freedom fighter who had led the Paika Bidroh against the British beginning from 1804.
Rout, on the other hand, has been propagating that Rajaguru was not a freedom fighter and had not spearheaded the Paika Rebellion against the British. On the basis of what he says a study made by historian Dr BC Roy, Rout argues that the Paika Bidroh had started in 1817 and it was led by Buxi Jagabandhu.
Even after the Chief Minister recognising Rajaguru as the first freedom fight martyr in Odisha, Rout stuck to his gun reiterating before mediapersons that Rajaguru had no role in the independence struggle.
However interestingly, Rout did not specifically refer to Patnaik’s view as incorrect. When reporters insisted for commenting on the Chief Minister’s statement, Rout frowned upon them, asking them “not to drag” him to such a controversy.
“I won’t give any reaction” about the Chief Minister’s view, he repeatedly hammered, obviously for fear of his boss’s wrath.
But he claimed to know Odisha’s history better as he is born and brought up in the State.
