Verbal jabs in Bengali during dropout debate trigger noisy scenes in Odisha Assembly

A sudden burst of Bengali phrases created an unexpected uproar in the Odisha Legislative Assembly on Friday during the Question Hour session on school dropout rates.

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The discussion pertaining to the School and Mass Education (S&ME) department turned tense when BJD MLA Ranendra Pratap Swain, while raising his concerns on dropout statistics, remarked, “Hisab kitab thik achhe, chele dubchhe kena?” (The calculations seem correct, so why is the number of students going down?)

As the House grew alert, BJP MLA Siddhant Mohapatra followed with another question but quickly shifted his attention towards Ranendra aka Raja Swain. In a sharp, Bengali-tinged retort, Siddhant said, “Tomar kachhe chele chhilo, amar kachhe chele ar meye ache” (You had only boys, but I have both boys and girls), triggering a wave of murmurs and counter-comments across the floor.

“You gave so many statistics now, but would you please give me the figure of the State, because you have the data from the ‘Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+)’. Why is the number of admissions going down every year? What are the details of this programme?” the BJD MLA questioned.

“What have you done to ensure quality education for the students?” Swain continued.

Replying to this, the BJP MLA stated, “The main point, for what Athagarh legislator asked, is that it would be better if any token of appreciation can be provisioned for those BRCCs (Block Resource Centre Coordinators), CRCCs (Cluster Resource Centre Coordinators), and BEOs (Block Education Officers), who are working in this regard.”

The exchange led to a brief war of words between ruling and opposition members, forcing the Speaker to intervene and restore order. The incident has since sparked fresh debate on the tone and conduct of legislators during sensitive discussions on education.