Prime Minister Narendra Modi is coming to dedicate the oil refinery to the nation on February 7. It’s a proud moment for the state. Why have you started raising your voice against this?
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief minister Naveen Patnaik are welcome to dedicate the project to the nation. I have no objection to that. But, they should not mislead the public on the Paradip oil refinery project. They should tell the people who had done the project. It was during the UPA regime that 90 per cent work was almost over and the remaining 10 per cent was completed by the present regime.
But it was during the NDA rule when the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee laid the foundation stone for the project. There is nothing wrong in BJP taking the credit for the oil refinery...
Public memory is too short. And every political party wants to take benefit of that. It was during the Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao’s government that the proposal for the project was initiated. The J.B. Patnaik government in the state had extended all sorts of co-operation and agreed to provide the incentives. In 2000, Vajpayee laid the foundation stone. But due to non-cooperation of the Naveen Patnaik government, the project was almost shelved within two years. It was during the UPA regime in 2004 on the insistence of the then petroleum minister Mani Shankar Aiyar that the project was revived. I must tell you that it was during the UPA regime and particularly in my tenure, when work begun for setting up of the petro chemicals and petroleum investment region with an investment of Rs 2 lakh crore in Paradip. It will take some time. But due credit should be given to those who really did all these things.
While you are listing out the contribution of everyone to the project, you have remained silent on former chief minister Biju Patnaik. The BJD said the oil refinery project was in fact Biju’s brainchild and he had initiated the move…
Biju babu had made a great contribution for the establishment of the Paradip port and the Daitary-Paradip expressway. His contribution to the overall development of Paradip is immense. But on the oil refinery issue… (pauses). He might have contributed. I am not aware of it. When the project proposal was given a concrete shape, he was in Parliament. He was happy with this project. But my point is that the contribution of others should not be undermined. Take the example of Niser. No one was talking about Manmohan Singh. This is really unfortunate. I still remember how Manmohan Singh reached here to lay the foundation stones for Niser and also the central university project at Koraput. As there was heavy rain, he was unable to go there. He laid the foundation stone of the project from inside the Raj Bhavan.
If you claim it’s the UPA government’s initiative, why is it that the Congress remains silent on the issue? The Congress is yet to speak even a word on it...
As a Congressman, I have raised the issue with the state leadership. I have already spoken to Prasad Hari-chandan, the Pradesh Congress Committee president. He has assured me that he will take up the issue. Of course, we have failed to project our good work before the masses, especially our flagship programme Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).
At least you should congratulate the Naveen Patnaik government for effectively implementing the MGNREGA in the state.
Why should I give credit to the Naveen Patnaik government? Should I give it credit for looting of money in the MGNREGA scheme? The comptroller and auditor-general (CAG) in its report had already pointed out how money was swindled by a few contractors. That happened in all parts of the state and even the chief ministers’ constituency is no exception. But attempts have been made to take the credit for the central scheme without doing anything. Even Indian Oil was exceeding its limit to support this move tacitly by helping the government to go for a massive campaign.
This is a big project for Odisha. If public awareness is being created on this issue, what’s wrong?
There is a limit to everything. The way things are moving is unfortunate. The kind of money spent on publicity is really an eye-opener. You should not spend public money like that. This is not the first Indian an oil refinery going to be inaugurated by the Prime minister. This is the eleventh oil refinery. This not the first time a Prime Minister is coming to the state. In the past, on many occasions, Prime Ministers have come to the state. One needs to explain the reason behind this hype.
Are you upset about the hype surrounding the project and the PM’s visit?
As I said public memory is short, many pertinent issues are yet to be addressed. Why was there delay in execution of the project? What is the secret behind it? If they were so keen on the project, why did they delay the project? Because of the failure on the part of the central and state governments in providing timely support, the project cost escalated by Rs 5,000 crore. Why are they spending so much on the visit of the Prime Minister?
Which are the things are you talking about?
Why did the Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) drop plans to set up a Rs 3,108 crore floating LNG import terminal at Paradip? What is the secret? Who pressurised them to do so? Did a private company play any role in it? The people of Odisha need these answers from the Prime Minister.
The Prime Minister is also coming to the state on February 21 to address a party rally at Bargarh on the issue of alleged farmers’ suicide...
These are political gimmicks. The Prime Minister could have visited the affected family members after the reported death of more than 300 farmers. Even chief minister Naveen Patnaik has not visited the family members of a single farmer to express his condolence. The state government is not ready to accept that farmers have committed suicide. Moneylenders are still harassing the farmers.
This week during a party’s meeting, leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra raised the issue of the differences among the senior leaders costing the party dearly…
In a democratic party, difference of opinion is bound to be there. Of course, I am not talking about the BJD because it’s a one-man party. Take the example of the BJP, there is a serious difference between Jual Oram and Dharmendra Pradhan. Even Jual had exposed the entire BJP leadership here by spilling the beans on how the BJP and BJD were hand-in-glove and because of this, the CBI has slowed down its investigation into the deposit-collection scam and the mining scam. They are not trying to find out Naveen Patnaik’s involvement in the scams. Compared to these, public perception about the Congress party is much better.
But the BJD has hit the streets against the BJP government in the Centre…
Both the BJP and the BJD are hand-in-glove. They wanted to hijack the UPA government’s success stories. The BJP ministers are coming to the state and all of them are trying to send a message that the NDA government has initiated various flagship programmes.
Despite all your criticism, Naveen Patnaik continues to be the most popular leader in the state and is growing stronger day by day…
There will be a sea change in state politics sooner or later. I admit that there are many problems. But the mistakes will not be repeated. The Congress has to be led by a collective leadership. You cannot get everything from a single leader.
There is a section of people who continue to believe that the Congress had been decimated in the state because of you. As chairman of the campaign committee, you had failed to give proper impetus to the state Congress…
Let them say. There were many reasons for the electoral defeat of the Congress. The atmosphere at the national level was against us. We failed to communicate to the masses and convince them about our good work. Our good works were hijacked by the BJD in the state.
An opinion is emerging that those who have been expelled from the party should come be brought back to the party fold…
It is for the party to decide who will be brought back... But those who had backstabbed the Congress should be taught a tough lesson.
Should expelled Congress leader Soumya Ranjan Patnaik be re-inducted to the party?
I cannot comment on that. The party high command will take that decision.
Questions have been raised on the leadership of Prasad Harichanandan. Many leaders have already raised their voice openly against him. It seems the Congress is not going in the right direction…
This is totally incorrect. He is a new president. It will take time. He cannot install a Congress government overnight. Things are moving in the right direction. He should be given time. When there is a mistake, the things can be rectified.
