Dharmendra Pradhan Endorses ‘Accurate’ Post Comparing Odisha’s Present With Past; BJD Retorts

Bhubaneswar: Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Thursday expressed concern over noted columnist Natabar Khuntia’s Facebook post, in which the latter compared the current political situation in Odisha with the reign of King Prataparudra Deva.

Taking to X (formerly Twitter), Dharmendra wrote, “He has very accurately compared the history of Odisha with the current social and political system. Everyone should read it.”

The Union Minister also appealed people to remember the writings of eminent litterateur Godbarish Mahapatra: “ଉଠ କଙ୍କାଳ, ଛିଡ଼ୁ ଶୃଙ୍ଖଳ, ଜାଗ ଦୁର୍ବଳ ଆଜି, ଉଠୁ ଗତ ଗୌରବ, ହୃତ ଗୌରବ ରାଜି” (Arise the skeleton, break the chains, wake up the weak today and rise to the glory of the past….).

In the Facebook post, Khuntia wrote about weakening of the the mighty kingdom of Odisha of 15th and 16 century ruled by King Prataparudra Deva, the son of Vira Pratapa Purushottama Deva, the second Gajapati emperor of Odisha, and attributed advent of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Vaishnavism as one of the reasons that dented its aggressive spirit as people spent most of their time performing ‘Nama Sankirtan’.

Subsequently, Prataparudra Deva lost many parts of the kingdom and it stood divided by the time of his death.

He then wrote about back door entry of minister Govinda Vidyadhara, who took charge of the kingdom after killing his two sons. It was then plundered by Mughal, Maratha and the later by the British rulers.

“After 75 years of Independence, a strange situation has arisen in Odisha. In tribal-majority districts of the state, more than 33 to 45 per cent of people are living below the poverty line and the monthly income of a farmer family has fallen from Rs 7,731 in 2015-16 to Rs 5,112 in 2018-19. The Odisha government, on the other hand, is busy sanctioning hundreds of crores of rupees for the construction of temples across the state,” Khuntia wrote.

He debunked the claims that it is being done to spread Jagannath culture, which he stressed flourished despite the Mughal and Maratha attacks. He, instead, drew the attention to the rising drug addiction among youths and blamed it on the government’s continuous  efforts to increase the revenue from the Excise department from Rs 197 crore in 2000-01 to Rs 8968 crore in 2022-23. “Odisha has again lost its aggressive trait or else the Chief Minister otherwise the Chief Minister of a democratic state would not have assigned a bureaucrat with the task to fly around the state in a helicopter to hear the grievances of people,” he further said.

“Will Odisha see another Govinda Vidyadhara and will the people of the state welcome him?” he then questioned, while expressing shock over a viral picture of secretary to the CM with women in the background.

Khuntia added that this was unlikely that the people of the state will let the sacrifices of Madhusudan Das, who led the linguistic movement that united Odisha, go waste. “Either the history will repeat itself nor the aspirations of Govinda Vidyadhara will see the light of the day,” he said and ended the post with the eminent litterateur Godbarish Mahapatra’s writing.

Responding to the Union Minister’s post, Rajya Sabha member from BJD Sasmit Patra said that getting self-sponsored social media posts and escalating them to vent out his frustration had become his favourite pastime. “The Union Minister has never spoken about interests of Odisha and its people before the Centre,” Sasmit tweeted and listed out a few examples.

He mentioned about very poor quality of National Highways in Odisha – Sambalpur-Cuttack NH – and the alleged conspiracy by Odisha BJP MPs in Delhi leading to the denial of seven lakh more houses under PMAY for tribals of the state. “Odias are not getting jobs in central PSUs like MCL, IOCL and NALCO. Angul, Dhenkanal and Sambalpur are witnessing huge pollution. While Rs 60,000 crore Clean Energy Cess has been collected, not a single rupee has been given to Odisha. It would be better if he takes up the interests of the people of Odisha before the Centre instead of spending time on referring self-sponsored social media posts,” he added.