Bhubaneswar: Odisha Congress has threatened to gherao Naveen Patnaik’s residence unless the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) president expels his political secretary Santrupt Misra from the party within seven days.
The charge against Misra is that he showed the gall to compare India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru with VK Pandian.
Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president Bhakta Charan Das said the party won’t tolerate any disrespect to Pandit Nehru.
“I demand that Naveen Babu should expel Misra from the party within seven days or else we will gherao Naveen Niwas. Congress cannot tolerate such disrespect towards the country’s first Prime Minister Nehru who has a lot of contributions to the development of Odisha,” Das said.
Das pointed out that the BJD was formed in the name of former chief minister Biju Patnaik, who was a close aide of Nehru.
“Biju Babu respected Nehru. Misra, who does not have any political background and was an employee of a private company, has compared him with Pandian,” Das said.
The OPCC chief claimed that Misra dared to make such a comparison because Naveen defended his trusted aide after the Waqf bill controversy.
“Naveen Babu came out to defend Pandian but he had no time to pull up his political secretary for such type of statement,” he said.
Misra’s defence
Misra defended his statement, saying that he hadn’t said anything wrong.
“I am not a fool to make a comparison between Nehru Ji and VK Pandian. My statement is distorted and presented in such a manner. I took the name of Nehru Ji under certain context and not made any comparison,” Misra was quoted as saying by PTI.
“Anybody interested in truth must listen to my interview. In this case, there is no attention to the fact and truth,” Misra said.
The controversy erupted after Misra told a private TV channel that Pandian was an equivalent of Nehru in Odisha.
“People are discussing about Nehru, the wrong done by him even after 60 years. Similarly, we have now Pandian, an equivalent of Nehru in Odisha. That is why people are discussing about him though he has played a great role in the development of Odisha,” Misra had stated.
