Bhubaneswar: BJD president Naveen Patnaik Monday said BJP MP Nishikant Dubey needs the attention of a “mental doctor” for making “outrageous” remarks against freedom fighter and former chief minister Biju Patnaik.
Condemning Dubey’s remark, the BJD chief said, “I think the BJP MP needs some mental doctor’s attention for saying these outrageous things,” he told reporters outside the Assembly here.
Dubey, in a statement March 27, had claimed that Biju Patnaik was the link between former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and the CIA during the war against China in the 1960s.
“I am surprised to find the outrageous things that Dubey said about Biju Babu. I do not think that Nehru had put an office next to his in Delhi, while Biju Babu was still the chief minister of Odisha, to carry out tactics and fight the Chinese,” Patnaik said.
Going down memory lane, he said, “I was very young at that time, about 13 years old, and I remember how furious Biju Babu was about the Chinese attack and how much he did to repel it.”
Dubey’s statement has created a furore across Odisha, with followers of Biju Patnaik criticising the BJP MP for dragging his name into the Chinese war episode.
“In his bid to blame the Congress and Nehru, the BJP MP has mentioned the name of Biju Patnaik,” a senior BJD leader said.
Meanwhile, BJD MP Sasmit Patra resigned from a parliamentary committee headed by Dubey over the latter’s remarks.
At least four other MPs — Manas Mangaraj, Subhasish Khuntia, Muzibulla Khan and Niranjan Bishi — criticised the BJP MP and accused him of “insulting the pride of Odisha”.
BJD senior vice-president Debi Prasad Mishra strongly condemned Dubey’s statement and demanded an apology from the BJP MP for making such “insulting” remarks against a “patriot”.
