Buckling under the pressure from Opposition members, ruling BJD MlA Priyadarshi Mishra on Saturday expressed regrets in the State Assembly for his controversial ‘human bomb’ statement to the media that some RD Women’s University students were detained during the Chief Minister’s visit to the university on Thursday with an apprehension of a situation like the one lTTE suicide bombers did by killing former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991.
“I was talking about the VVIP security issue. I had no intention of speaking about the students of the Rama Devi University.
I am affectionate towards them. I express regrets if anyone has been hurt over my statement,” said Bhubaneswar North MlA Mishra.
Mishra expressed regrets in the afternoon session after an all-party meeting was held after an adjournment of the House.
Earlier in the day, the House had witnessed three adjournments as Opposition Congress and BJP members insisted on a reply from the Government on the Issue. The two-day logjam was likely to after the afternoon session as the Speaker had directed the Government to reply on the issue.
But meanwhile, Mishra aired the controversial statement outside the Assembly.
When the House met at 3 pm, leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra termed the MlA’s statement as “deplorable, unfortunate and condemnable” and demanded that the MlA express regrets, otherwise uproar would erupt across the State.
Speaker Niranjan Pujari invited some Ministers, the leader of Opposition and both Government and Opposition Chief Whips to his chamber for a discussion.
However, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Bikram Keshari Arukh, in his statement on behalf of the Government, said girls were neither detained nor debarred from entering the campus and participating in the function.
He said that the incident was misreported and blown out of proportions.