Odisha Elections 2024: Dharmendra Slams Naveen Patnaik Over His ‘Ignorance’; Says No System Of Classical Tag For Music

Bhubaneswar: Senior BJP leader and Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Sunday hit out at BJD president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik accusing him of being ignorant about many aspects of Odisha.

Referring to Naveen’s reaction to certain issues raised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his election campaign in Odisha on Saturday, Dharmendra Pradhan accused the Chief Minister of being evasive to the main questions raised by the PM.

Modi had sought to know whether Naveen can name all the 30 districts of Odisha without referring to any prepared note. He also wanted to know if the CM will be able to name ten villages of Kantabanji Assembly constituency in Balangir from where the BJD president is seeking election.

Accusing Naveen of raising irrelevant issues instead of answering questions raised by Modi, the senior BJP leader said, “everybody knows that the CM has no knowledge about many things pertaining to Odisha and he depends entirely on written texts provided by outsourced people.”

Coming down heavily on Naveen for accusing the Centre of ignoring the demand for classical status to Odissi music, Dharmendra said the Chief Minister must know that there is no system of according classical tag to any music.

The Sangeet Natak Akadami has also made it clear, he said, adding that no music has been granted such status. However, Odissi dance and Odia language have been accorded classical status as there are provisions for this, he said.

Hitting out at the Chief Minister, the BJP leader said that a piece of land had been sought for setting up a Centre of Classical Indian Languages after Odia was granted classical language status way back in in 2014.

However, the state government took no step in this regard for years and finally a house was allotted for running an office only in 2019, he said.

While Rs 30 crore grant was provided for promotion of Odia language, UGC has brought out engineering text books in Odia language, said Dharmendra. The CM himself present at the function in which these books were launched, he said.

“Unfortunately, the CM does not know many things about Odisha and he is not briefed by the cartel in his office. Most of the officials in his office have little knowledge of the state,” the Union Minister claimed.