Bhubaneswar: A day after BJD activists raised “go back” slogans against him at Bhubaneswar airport, former Union education minister and senior BJP leader Dharmendra Pradhan on Saturday hit back at Biju Janata Dal (BJD) president Naveen Patnaik, accusing him of branding him a “wicked person” and orchestrating a campaign against him through some young leaders of the party.
Addressing a public meeting at Rairakhol in his Sambalpur Lok Sabha constituency, Pradhan said he had never done anything during his 12 years in the Union Council of Ministers that would make the people of Odisha “hang their heads in shame.”
“Have I ever done anything that would force you to lower your heads in shame? But your leader Naveen Patnaik calls me a ‘khala prakrutira manisa’ (wicked person). He has engaged two young leaders of his party—one male and one female—to wage a ‘go back’ campaign against me,” Pradhan said.
Turning to the gathering, he repeatedly asked whether he had ever done anything that had brought disrepute to Odisha. The crowd responded with loud cries of “No, no.”
“Naveen Patnaik tells me to go back. Where should I go? Odisha is my home and Sambalpur is my workplace. I am the son of a farmer. Even if you tell me to go back, I will come,” Pradhan said.
He said he had entered the Union Cabinet 12 years ago with the blessings of Lord Jagannath and Maa Samaleswari and had since worked for the development of Odisha and the country.
“I have never done anything that would tarnish Odisha’s reputation. I have never lowered the heads of 4.5 crore Odias, and as long as I live, I will never do anything to bring disrepute to the state,” he said.
Pradhan’s remarks came against the backdrop of an escalating political confrontation between the BJP and the BJD over the NEET-UG controversy and the alleged police action against protesting students at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi.
While expressing solidarity with students protesting over the NEET issue, Patnaik had earlier sought Pradhan’s resignation as Union education minister.
The Rairakhol meeting also offered an unusual political contrast. Senior BJD leader Prasanna Acharya shared the dais with Pradhan, even as another group of BJD leaders led by former minister Rohit Pujari was preparing to hold protest rallies against the Union minister a few kilometres away in Sambalpur.
Referring to Acharya’s presence, Pradhan said he had come to Rairakhol with his permission and suggested that the veteran BJD leader did not share Patnaik’s assessment of him.
“I came to Rairakhol with the permission of Prasanna Bhai (Prasanna Acharya). He loves me. But his party president Naveen Patnaik has a different view of me. He sees me as a bad person,” Pradhan said sarcastically.
Responding to Pradhan’s remarks, BJD leader Rohit Pujari said nobody had defamed the Union minister and that he had brought the criticism upon himself through his handling of the NEET controversy.
“Why would Naveen Patnaik want to defame Dharmendra Pradhan? The whole country knows that 21 children committed suicide because of him. Of the 22 lakh students who appeared for the examination, around 21 lakh students must be under depression. Nobody needs to defame him; he has defamed himself,” Pujari said.
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