Outlook interviewed Union Health Minister Dharmendra Pradhan as he hit the campaign trail in Odisha's Sambalpur constituency. Pradhan is contesting the Lok Sabha elections after over a decade and is leading BJP's push for wresting the state from BJD's five-time CM Navin Patnaik.
Pradhan said that the state government had been handed over to a proxy (hinting at Patnaik's aid VK Pandian) and the BJD had failed to resolve key problems of the state. He claimed that the BJP would win all 21 parliamentary seats in Odisha and form the state government.
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Pradhan said that the state government had been handed over to a proxy (hinting at Patnaik's aid VK Pandian) and the BJD had failed to resolve key problems of the state. He claimed that the BJP would win all 21 parliamentary seats in Odisha and form the state government.
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Website: https://www.outlookindia.com/
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#BJP #Odisha #DharmendraPradhan #Sambalpur #LokSabhaElections2024 #BJD
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Good evening. Welcome to Outlook India. Today we are with the Union Minister of Education
00:09 and the candidate for the Sambalpur Lok Sabha constituency, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan ji.
00:14 Sir, thank you so much for joining us for this interview.
00:17 Thank you for coming here.
00:18 Thank you, sir. What made you return to Odisha to the electoral fray this year? Because in
00:24 between, you know, you were in the mostly in the Rajya Sabha in between. So what brings
00:28 you back to the Lok Sabha elections in Odisha?
00:32 I am grateful to my party. Party sent me twice to Rajya Sabha. Very young age. But my age
00:40 is not for Rajya Sabha, really. So I won once legislative assembly election here in Odisha.
00:49 And again in 2004, I won Lok Sabha. So I am a karakarta of public activities, election.
01:01 So this time I seek permission from my party to contest Lok Sabha election from Odisha.
01:07 I am thankful to my leadership. They have permitted me to contest this election from
01:13 this prestigious seat, Sambalpur.
01:15 Sir, just before the elections about one month ago, there were sort of media reports, discussions
01:20 that there might be an alliance between the BJP and the BJD. But that did not materialize.
01:27 So what happened? Like, how? What would you say about these reports?
01:33 I don't have any information about any alliance plan. My party is very clear on certain things.
01:41 We are a separate party from BJD in Odisha. We are fighting political level with each
01:47 other since last three elections. This time, due to lack of governance, lack of any vision,
01:55 people are unhappy with the incumbent government, the leadership of the incumbent government.
02:00 People want a change. Bharatiya Janata Party is a natural party of alternative ideas in
02:05 Odisha. So Bharatiya Janata Party is contesting this election like last time on its own. And
02:12 we are confident we are winning all the 21 Lok Sabha seats and we will proceed getting
02:17 majority in state assembly. And Bharatiya Janata Party will form the government in Odisha
02:23 after election.
02:24 Sir, the campaign has really heated over the last 10 days. So I have also been in the state.
02:30 And this issue that the Prime Minister raised last week about the Odia language and culture
02:36 that we should have a chief minister who will be able to speak the people's language. So
02:43 don't you think this has been resurrected like this issue was nowhere earlier? What
02:48 is your response to this issue? How do you see it in the issue of language?
02:52 It is a very big issue. It is very important and very pertinent. Let me clarify. This time
02:59 there is a different scenario. When we are completing the 100 years of our statehood,
03:05 let us see the socio-economic condition of the state. Malnutrition, child mortality,
03:13 dropouts at matriculation level, these are the highest among the countries compared to
03:22 the rest of the world. If you look into Odisha's strategies, one third of the state's population
03:29 is compelled to migrate out of state in search of livelihood. There is no drinking water
03:36 in the villages. There is no drinking clean water in the urban areas of the state. There
03:42 is lack of irrigation facility in the paddy fields in the rural area. There is no agri-marketing
03:48 ecosystem in the state. These are the primary causes of popularity of local government.
03:56 That is why Prime Minister Modi appealed to the society. When the state has a unique and
04:05 typical situation due to the decision of the Chief Minister of the state, he failed to
04:13 nominate a single Odia person out of this 4.5 crore Odia people as his inheritor, as
04:21 his successor. Some compulsion might have been given. He chosen an outsider, a bureaucrat.
04:30 Till few months he was serving as an officer. In those days we have our opinion on that
04:37 person. He is doing political thing. He is not disposing his constitutional responsibility
04:44 as an administrative officer. People are not accepting that model. There lies the issue
04:52 of who will run the show in Odisha. That's why Prime Minister in his own way said, "Bernard
04:59 Odia speaking, person will lead the state." That's the cause, that's the issue of the
05:05 society today in Odisha.
05:07 Sir, this thing which you said about the potential successor, I understand that to be Mr. Kanyan.
05:13 Also, the BJP has alleged that Mr. Naveen Patnaik is not in good health and the status
05:18 of his true health is being hidden from the people.
05:21 No, no, it's not that. It's not fair to comment anybody's personal well-being. But
05:29 who is an elected person, he is bound to be accountable to the society. A proxy cannot
05:36 run the system. I wish Honorable Chief Minister of Odisha should live long. He should complete
05:42 his century, his 100th year. I pray in front of God to a good life of Mr. Patnaik. But
05:51 when he is an elected person, he is accountable to society. He should run the show.
05:58 My information, the Chief Secretary of State has not met Chief Minister since last six
06:03 months. The Director General of Police has not met him after his present appointment.
06:08 No secretaries are permitted to take order and instruction from Chief Minister.
06:13 Not a single cabinet minister is permitted to get into his room. So, what kind of democracy
06:20 is here? What kind of constitutionality is here?
06:23 So you reject all these headlines of friendly fight or there are sometimes projections that
06:30 after the elections, the two parties might come together again. Or sometimes people are
06:36 saying that in assembly, it will be BJP and in parliament, there might be BJP. That there's
06:44 some sort of an understanding. You reject these kind of...
06:47 I don't think that situation is there in the ground today. You are also touring the state.
06:51 Yes.
06:51 There's a clear-cut Modi wave in state. We are going to win all the parliamentary seats
06:56 and we are going to get majority in state assembly and BJP is going to form its own
07:01 government in Odisha.
07:04 Sir, since you have joined the campaign in a major way, the BJP has also stepped up
07:09 against attacks against you, sometimes without taking your name. So, does that make you an
07:16 automatic CM candidate? Would you like to comment on that?
07:20 Some compulsion might be there, we think. But my party doesn't function, it believes
07:26 in that way. We are a collective party, we are a collective leadership party and there
07:30 is a process how a leader, head of the government will be decided in our party. So, I am a
07:39 carrier of my party. Let them do, let them attack me personally or directly or indirectly.
07:45 In democracy, when you are in election fray, you are leading a campaign, so you have to
07:50 face the challenges. I don't take it personally. They are opposing BJP, they are opposing
07:56 Prime Minister Modi rather than they don't have any moral courage to oppose Prime Minister
08:01 Modi by name. So, they are using somebody's proxy, let them do that. But it's not on
08:07 me, I don't see any personal angle on this issue.
08:13 Sir, about some major issues of Western Odisha, as I have seen, this has been a hotbed of
08:19 farmers' movement from history, from the time of Irakot Dam was constructed. So, what
08:25 are some of BJP's plans for the farmers? I talked to a lot of farmers, they are suffering
08:30 due to high electricity bills. Many of them are talking about lack of irrigation and MSP
08:37 for paddy. So, would you like to tell us about that?
08:40 We have promised in our Sankalpa Patra, there is a Modi guarantee per quintal, we will purchase
08:47 paddy with Rs. 3,100, the way we have done that in Chhattisgarh. There will be no cutney
08:53 chutney, there will be no millmen in the process. Directly, government, primary agriculture
08:59 society will purchase the paddy from the farmers. Paddy will be stocked at Bandi. From there,
09:07 government will send it to the designated millers. The transaction will be in between
09:13 government, primary agriculture society, banks and farmers. And price will be Rs. 3,100.
09:19 Today, government of India is giving price as Rs. 2,183. State should have given some
09:27 additional resource on that, the way Chhattisgarh is doing. They failed to do that. Once they
09:31 have promised in 2024, I don't know, 2015, they have promised Rs. 100 of additional bonus,
09:36 but they did not fulfil their promise, they did not give it. Then there is anger against
09:41 BJP government. They have cheated farmers. Bharatiya Janata Party will give Rs. 3,100
09:50 per quintal in Odisha. Sir, as I saw, compared to earlier, this time in these elections,
09:57 Odisha has assumed a bigger prominence because earlier it was seen as sort of a dandil.
10:03 Do you think this is because BJP's performance in other states has been affected or is being
10:09 assessed differently? Or what are the reasons for this? We have lost somewhere and we cover
10:14 up somewhere, it's not that way. We fought the election of Uttar Pradesh, the way, the aggression,
10:22 the focused manner, we have a pattern. We have repeated that in Kerala. We have repeated that
10:30 in Nagaland. We have repeated that in Bangalore. We have repeated that in Gujarat. We have repeated
10:34 that in Bihar. We are repeating that in Odisha also. BJP is a well-oiled organization network
10:40 in the state, in the entire country. We are focused on how to campaign in the USA. We are
10:47 doing that here also. There is no somewhere we lost, somewhere we make up. It's not that case.
10:53 Sir, one last question. So, this in Sambalpur, you know, last year on Hanuman Jayanti, there was an
10:59 incident of, you know, religion-based tensions were there. And there have been statements about
11:05 how the government handled this. There have been allegations that the BJP is trying to polarize
11:09 the society here. So, what is your take on that? Don't go by BJP's point of view. Go by local
11:16 police past information report. The miscreant has been patronized by state government.
11:22 This is the primary information of local police, the local police stations. They are biased.
11:28 They do abysmal politics. There is a huge reaction in the society.