Targeting Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik over the Mamita Meher murder case, Union Education Minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, Dharmendra Pradhan on Friday said that Patnaik is having double standards over his proclaimed principles.
“He has separate sets of morale standards for other BJD leaders and his close aides like MoS (Home) Dibya Shankar Mishra,” Pradhan said.
The Union Minister was addressing party workers during ‘Misrana Parba’ at the BJP party office in Bhubaneswar where former Minister and BJD leader Sanjeev Sahu was taken into the saffron party fold on Friday.
Drawing parallel between CM Naveen Patnaik’s morale standards with some towering leaders, Pradhan said leaders like Lal Bahadur Shastri and Lal Krishna Advani left their chairs in keeping with their morale stance. In fact, Naveen Patnaik himself had removed many ministers on moral grounds in the past over the slightest allegations, he said.
“But, when accusations were made against his close aides and confidants, he turned a blind eye and forgot those standards. It is double standard at its best,”
“The family members of Mamita Meher were harassed and made to run from pillar to post just to file an FIR. Even after the registration of an FIR, the statement of the family members was never recorded under section-164 of CRPC,” alleged Pradhan.
Accusing the Minister Dibya Shankar Mishra of influencing the probe, Pradhan said, “Even though the police have not filed the chargesheet in the case, the victim’s family have been pressurised to move the High Court seeking speedy trial of the case.”
Taking a jab at CM Naveen, Pradhan said, “Ego has a very short shelf life. It does not stay forever with anyone.”
It is pertinent to mention here that Dibya Shankar Mishra had recently claimed he had never been to Sunshine Public School at Mahaling in Kalahandi. The lady teacher of the school, Mamita Meher, was killed by Gobinda Sahu, the head of the school before she was murdered.
“Just because I represent this Assembly Constituency, I cannot be held responsible for a murder that I am not a part of,” Mishra had claimed.
Meanwhile, Jajpur MLA from BJD, Pranab Prakash Das refuted allegations mede by Pradhan and hit back at him saying to bring credible evidence to the court and CM Naveen will himself put Minister Mishra in jail.
Following Das' jibe at Pradhan, BJP leaderJay Narayan Mishra asked Das to make all the proofs with which CM naveen had removed ministers in the past public.