Civil society groups feel that BJD senior leader and Minister Damodar Rout’s move to hold Biju Patnaik birth centenary with national leaders separately at Paradip has the approval of party president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in order to serve his political purpose without getting exposed himself.
“A national-level observation of Biju Patnaik birth centenary with Government money will not go well with the political as well as intellectual circles. From past experience, the Chief Minister knows it, and, hence, he asked Rout to do it unofficially. Nobody other than Rout can stage such a show,” said Odisha Soochana Adhikar Abhijan convenor Pradip Pradhan here at a Press conference on Thursday.
He further alleged that as the unholy alliance between BJD-Narendra Modi Government gets more and more exposed in public and the people of Odisha having secular values are getting sensitised about the BJD’s nexus with the BJP, Patnaik as a part of his image-building exercise has set Rout on the task of inviting leaders across party lines such as Mulayam Singh Yadav, Mamata Banerjee, lalu Prasad, Nitish Kumar and Sharad Yadav.
“His (Patnaik’s) sole motive behind all this is to show off to the public that that he enjoys close rapport with the leaders of different political parties at the national level. Thereby, he too aims at acquiring a stronger position in his bargain with the BJP and hopes that the BJP-led Central Government will also be cautious enough in taking any step towards destabilisation of the BJD Government,” observed Pradhan.
He said civil society groups have written letters to all the leaders invited for the centenary celebrations appealing to them not to attend the proposed event.