End Of An Era: Odisha Gandhian Bhabani Pattanayak Passes Away

Bhubaneswar: Eminent Gandhian from Odisha and former Rajya Sabha member Bhabani Charan Pattanayak passed away at the Capital Hospital here on Thursday evening. He was 98.

Informing the news of Pattanayak’s death, School and Mass Education minister and Nimapara MLA Samir Ranjan Dash said that he will be cremated with full state honours at Nimapada on Friday.

Born on March 11, 1922, at Andia village of Nimapara block in Puri district, Pattanayak joined the Quit India Movement in 1942 and spent three-and-a-half years in jail.

After India gained Independence, he found his calling in the Congress and continued spreading awareness on Gandhi’s ideology. Having joined Congress Seva Dal, he served the secretary of the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC). He was elected to Rajya Sabha thrice — in 1961, 1966 and 1978.

Pattanayak was the chairman of Kalinga Foundation Trust and secretary of Gopabandhu Daridra Narayan Seva Sangh. He was also president of Ruchika Social Services Organization, which works with slum children. Popularly known as the Nimapara Gandhi, he was one of the founding members of the Nimapara Autonomous College.

He was conferred with the Padma Shri in 2018.

The nonagenarian was the first person to sign the campaign supporting the suggestion of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to incorporate the word ‘Ahimsa’ (non-violence) in the Preamble of the Indian Constitution in August last year.

The Gandhian leader was admitted to the ICU of the Capital Hospital on March 25. As his condition had improved, family members had recently taken him to his Ashok Nagar residence in Bhubaneswar.

On Thursday, he fell unconscious and was readmitted to the ICU of the Capital Hospital where the doctors pronounced him dead after some time.