BJP’s joke on Naveen Patnaik’s ‘penance’ attack: ‘Would have spoken well of Odia’ | India News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: Odisha chief minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Krushna Chandra on Thursday hit back at former chief minister Naveen Patnaik over his recent ‘doing penance for 12 years’ comment and said the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) did nothing for the state.
Reacting to Patnaik’s statement targeting the BJP government mango seed deaths in Kandhamal district, Chandra said, “Naveen Patnaik said he did penance for 12 years but we (BJP) ruined everything. However, he did nothing.”
“If he had done something, he could have spoken Odia properly. Even after so many years, he cannot speak Odia properly, he cannot even speak English properly. He has done nothing for Odisha,” the Odisha minister said.

Earlier in the day, BJD president Patnaik held the Odisha government responsible for the deaths of two women who died after consuming mango kernel porridge in Kandhamal district.
According to the former chief minister, inadequate food supply at home forced the tribal women to consume the porridge, while the BJP government maintained its stand that food poisoning caused the deaths.
“The state government has stopped supply of rice to poor tribals. Therefore, they were forced to eat mango kernel porridge. Two people have died and others are undergoing treatment. This is very sad,” Patnaik said while addressing members of the party’s student wing. the BJD headquarters.
He expressed concerns over the decisions of the current government, stating that they had undermined the BJD government’s previous work in ensuring adequate grain distribution. Patnaik, who was chief minister of Odisha from 2000 to 2024, emphasized that his government had implemented a state food security program for those not covered by the NFSA.
“Now the current government has ruined all these efforts and as a result people are being forced to eat mango kernel porridge as they are not getting rice,” Patnaik said.
Minister for Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare KC Patra rejected these claims and countered, “As many as 16 people had died due to eating mango seeds in Tikiri and Kashipur blocks of Rayagada district during the disaster.” BJD government. Will Patnaik admit that these people died because they were not fed rice?”
The minister confirmed that medical reports indicated food poisoning as the cause of death, and not rice scarcity. He further stated that consuming mango kernel porridge was common among tribal communities, adding, “The mango kernel porridge does not affect their lives, but this time it was 4/5 days old and became poison.”