Indus Valley Times

By Sukanta Mohanty

Bhubaneswar, Jan. 7: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday fired salvos at Odisha’s ruling BJD as it found Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s photograph was missing in the state government’s newspaper advertisements released on the occasion flagging off of the Bhubaneswar- Rourkela flight services.

The saffron party said “deliberate omission” of the PM’s photograph in the newspaper advertisements and hoardings put out across the state reflected the narrow political mindset of the BJD leaders.

The BJP leaders, including Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Bhubaneswar Lok Sabha member Aparajita Sarangi, criticised the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) saying absence of PM Modi’s pictures in the newspaper advertisements and hoardings was ‘unfortunate.’

“During his recent visit to Bali island in Indonesia, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke about the historic Bali Yatra in Odisha’s Cuttack city. The PM had been taking Odisha’s name at several national and international events. But it is unfortunate that the Odisha government even did not thanked the PM despite his efforts to build Odisha as a prosperous state,” said Mr Pradhan.

According to Pradhan, it would have been appropriate if the PM’s picture had found place in the advertisement and hoardings.

“The way the BJD treated the Prime Minister is not the tradition of Odisha. And today’s event was only possible due to the efforts of the Prime Minister. I am sure the chief minister Naveen Patnaik must not be aware of such a thing. People surrounding him might have committed this narrow act,” Pradhan added.

Bhubaneswar MP Aparajita Sarangi said, “The Centre has contributed 100 per cent of the funds for developing the Rourkela airport under the Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik (UDAN) yojana but unfortunately there is no picture of the Prime Minister in any of the hoarding and advertisement. It is shameful that not a single official associated with the state government acknowledged it. All of us wanted to hear a thank you from the CM for his contribution, but it didn’t come from him.”

Reacting to the BJP’s observations, senior BJD leader and Odisha transport minister Tukuni Sahu said, “The BJP is in the habit of making a mountain out of molehill and their baseless allegations against us on non-issues are nothing new. There has been a lot of development in the past 22 years under the leadership of CM Naveen Patnaik.”