“Insult To the Lord, Deeply Hurt Odia Asmita”: Naveen Patnaik On Sambit Patra’s “Lord Jagannath Devotee” Remarks
Calling it an “insult to the Lord Jagannath” and has “hurt the Odia Asmita (pride)”, BJD chief and Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik blasted BJP’s Puri Lok Sabha candidate Sambit Patra on his comment on the presiding deity of the famous Jagannath Temple, Lord Jagannath. A video has gone viral on Monday in which Patra, who is famous as BJP’s face on television debates, is seen talking about Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said: “Lord Jagannath is a devotee of PM Modi”. Odisha voted today in the fifth phase of the Lok Sabha election 2024 and the second phase of the state Assembly elections. Congress party has also come upon heavily on Mr Patra and used the same language of Mr Patnaik and called it a direct attack on Odisha Asmita.
However, reacting to the criticism, Mr Patra said that the remarks were “slip of tongue” and it happened by mistake.
“Mahaprabhu Shree Jagannatha is the Lord of Universe. Calling Mahaprabhu a bhakt of another human being is an insult to the Lord. This has hurt the sentiments and demeaned the faith of crores of Jagannatha bhaktas and Odias across the world,” the Odisha chief minister said in an X post.
“The Lord is the greatest Symbol of Odia Asmita. Calling Mahaprabhu a bhakt of another human being is totally condemnable. I strongly denounce the statement made by the BJP Puri Lok Sabha candidate and I appeal to the BJP to keep the Lord above any political discourse. By this you have deeply hurt Odia Asmita and this will be remembered and condemned by people of Odisha for a very long time,” he added.
In his clarification to Naveen Patnaik, the BJP leader said: “I gave number of bytes today to multiple media channels after the massive success of Shri Narendra Modiji’s Road Show in Puri today, everywhere I mentioned that Modi ji is an ardent “Bhakt” of Shri Jagannath Mahaprabhu ..by mistake during one of the bytes I pronounced just the opposite ..I know you too know and understand this ..Sir let’s not make an issue out of a nonexistent issue ..we all have “slip of tongue sometimes”.. Thanks and Pranam!”.
