BJP MP Nishikant Dubey issues unconditional apology after row over comments about Biju Patnaik
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Bharatiya Janata Party MP Nishikant Dubey issued an unconditional public apology on Wednesday following criticism about his remarks on former Odisha Chief Minister Biju Patnaik.
“Biju Babu has always been and will remain a towering statesman for us,” Dubey said on social media. “If my statement has hurt anyone’s sentiments, I unconditionally apologise.”
On March 27, Dubey had alleged that Patnaik, who was Odisha’s chief minister during the 1962 war with China, acted as a link between the United States government, the Central Intelligence Agency and Jawaharlal Nehru, the prime minister at the time.
Dubey also claimed that Patnaik helped the Central Intelligence Agency operate U-2 reconnaissance aircraft from Charbatia air base in Odisha, which he said hosted US military presence from 1963 to 1979.
His comments drew widespread condemnation from across the political spectrum.
Biju Patnaik’s son and former Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik said Dubey needed “mental [health] doctors’ attention for making such outrageous remarks”, PTI reported.
Biju Janata Dal MP Sasmit Patra resigned from the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology, which Dubey heads, in protest, The Wire reported.
Other MPs from the party also staged walkout in the Rajya Sabha in protest on Monday.
The BJP’s national vice president Baijayant Panda described his party colleague’s comments as “fantastical and patently ludicrous” and called attacks on Patnaik “unworthy, uninformed and totally unacceptable”.
In his apology, Dubey...