Minister Damodar Rout was yet again on Sunday at his game of embarrassing the leadership of his BJD.
Rout, a BJD vice-president, who is known to always seek one-upmanship in the ruling party affairs, is an easy ever-ready catch for the media for his off-the-cuff remarks on all and sundry matters making headlines.
This time, he targeted another senior BJD leader, Surjya Narayan Patro, for his pungent remarks as Patro is currently on a State-wide tour with members of the Biju Janata Mahila Morcha for protests against the building of dams on the Mahanadi in Chhattisgarh.
Rout commented that it was odd that like a woman Patro carried a Kalas (clay pot) filled with Mahanadi water in a western Odisha town along with party women’s wing members to break it before photos of Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh and Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti in protest against the dam projects.
Political observers wondered how Rout was unaware of the fact that Patro, a newly-appointed party spokesperson, is accompanying the BJD women at the instance of party supremo Naveen Patnaik.
The garrulous Rout did not even hesitate to criticise the party’s entire Kalas Yatra programme as he posed a question whether carrying Mahanadi water in pots would resolve the water dispute with Chhattisgarh.