Bhubaneswar: BJD MP Sasmit Patra on Sunday resigned from a Parliamentary committee headed by BJP lawmaker Nishikant Dubey over the latter’s remark on former Odisha chief minister Biju Patnaik.
Dubey, in a statement on March 27, claimed that Biju Patnaik was the link between former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and the CIA in the 1960s.
In protest, Patra resigned from the Communications and IT Committee headed by Dubey, while three other party MPs -- Manas Mangaraj, Subhasis Khuntia and Muzibulla Khan (Munna Khan) -- criticised the BJP MP and accused him of “insulting the pride of Odisha”.
The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) was floated by his son Naveen Patnaik after his demise in 1997.
He was Odisha’s chief minister twice -- from 1961 to 1963, and 1990 to 1995.
BJD rejected Dubey’s statement and demanded an apology from him.
BJD senior vice president Debi Prasad Mishra said Dubey’s statement was in “bad taste, mischievous and an insult to a patriot”.
“We, as a political party, strongly condemn his statement and demand an apology from him,” Mishra told news agency.
In a letter to the Rajya Sabha chairman on March 28, Patra said, “In protest, and as a matter of principle, I am resigning from the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communications and IT under the chairmanship of Shri Nishikant Dubey. I cannot, in good conscience, continue to serve under someone who makes disrespectful remarks about Late Shri Biju Patnaik ji as he did in a public statement.”
Patra also requested the Rajya Sabha chairman to accept his resignation and forward it to the Lok Sabha Speaker, as the committee is under the Lok Sabha.