Bhubaneswar, March 31 The Odisha Assembly was adjourned for about 40 minutes on Tuesday as opposition members strongly protested alleged "insult" to the son of the soil and former chief minister Biju Patnaik by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey.
As soon as the House assembled for the Question Hour at 10.30 am, members of BJD, Congress, and CPI(M) marched into the Well of the House and raised slogans against the state's BJP government over its silence on Dubey's statement against Biju Patnaik, a two-time chief minister of Odisha.
As the opposition members raised slogans and staged a protest in the Well of the House, Speaker Surama Padhy adjourned the proceedings until 11.30 am.
Senior BJP leader Dubey, a Member of Parliament from the Godda constituency in Jharkhand, on March 27, in a statement, had claimed that Biju Patnaik was the link between former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and the CIA during the war against China in the 1960s.
Dubey's statement has sparked nationwide outrage, with BJD MPs strongly protesting the "insult" to Biju Patnaik in the Rajya Sabha on Monday, and its impact was felt on the streets of Odisha when youths and students staged demonstrations and burnt an effigy of the BJP MP.
"When the Congress treated Biju Babu unjustly, it was the Jana Sangh and the Bharatiya Janata Party that stood by him. What I said that day, and what I repeat again today (March 30), is that I am running a continuous series exposing the deeds of the Nehru-Gandhi family and the Congress," Dubey told reporters in the Parliament House complex on Monday.
However, the BJP MP's clarification that there has never been any lack of respect for Biju Patnaik failed to satisfy the angry BJD leaders in Odisha. The BJD (Biju Janata Dal), named after Biju Patnaik, instead demanded an unconditional apology from Dubey, even as the BJP MP has issued a clarification saying that he did not disrespect Biju Patnaik. He also praised Biju Patnaik as a prominent freedom fighter.
However, the BJD has intensified its agitation in the Odisha Assembly demanding a statement from Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi.
Meanwhile, senior BJD member and former minister, Ranendra Pratap Swain in a notice to the Odisha Assembly secretariat requested to move a motion titled: "Defamatory and false statement pronounced against Biju Babu and thereby hurting the Pride of Odias."
Swain's notice was under consideration of the Speaker, sources said.
The Congress also joined the BJD in the protest against Dubey, and OPCC president Bhakta Charan Das said, "Strongly condemn BJP MP Nishikant Dubey's outrageous remarks against Odisha's pride Biju Patnaik. Such baseless comments on a towering freedom fighter like him are absolutely intolerable. Insulting Biju Babu's legacy won't hide the failures of the BJP government."