Chairman of 5T and Nabin Odisha, VK Pandian during a recent podcast with ANI, in what was his first ever interview, made many revelations in the context of Odisha’s politics, bureaucracy and Naveen Patnaik led Biju Janata Dal, of which he formally became a member two months ago after taking voluntary retirement from All India Civil Services.
The BJD leader spoke about a lot of things – starting from Biju Patnaik’s legacy, the Centre-state ties, devolution of central funds, the systemic improvements, Congress allegations of fixed match between BJD and BJP, on whether he is contesting the polls, and more.
During the interview, Pandian also made some claims which were later countered by Ruben Banerjee, the senior journalist who has penned the biography of Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik.
When the conversation dived into development of tribal-dominated Kalahandi, VK Pandian claimed in the interview that during chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s time, the face of Kalahandi changed as he transformed the drought or grey areas into green areas. However, Ruben Banerjee termed it as false claim. According to him, Kalahandi's transformation from basket case to bread basket happened before Naveen Odisha.
Speaking on the Centre-state ties, VK Pandian mentioned that all central schemes are not accepted by the Odisha Government but the BJD-led-government chooses what’s good for the nation. He even said that BJD opposed the Farm Bills and National Register of Citizens or NRC bill. However, Banerjee again countered that there were no actual votes for these bills. He also highlighted that BJD wanted to have better look at the Farm Bills and it supported CAA, respectively. Banerjee said, "Did BJD vote against BJP's Farm Bills. No! For that matter, there was no actual vote in Rajya Sabha. BJD wanted Bills to be sent to Standing Committee for deeper look. Bills were passed with voice vote finally and BJD MPs did not have to cast individual votes”.
VK Pandian also remembered his recruitment days and said that his IAS Academy Director in 2000 asked him choose Odisha citing that an honest man Naveen Patnaik has become the CM. To this statement, Ruben Banerjee questioned how did the director know in 2000 that Naveen Patnaik who was new in his first individual job was honest?
Raising questions with constructive criticism, the senior journalist has for sure turned heads.