MARKETING LIES IN THE NAME OF BIJU PATNAIK |

By;Prasanta Patnaik,Sr.Journalist

Bhubaneswar:It has been noticed that some unscrupulous persons have started claiming themselves as close to Odisha’s legendary leader Biju Patnaik has been circulating misinformation about this great man only to publicize themselves in the media. Unfortunately, the media persons working mostly for electronic media as well as YouTube channels are circulating such false information without verifying, which has become a very dangerous trend.

It is noticed that the media in Odisha use to write and circulate news and stories during the birthday of Biju Babu on March 5 in the past few years. But instead of publishing and circulating true stories about the great Odia known around the world for his bravery, many prefer to carry false and fabricated stories about Biju Babu as they know for certain that none would counter such false claims.

It has been brought to my notice by some credible media persons that Mr Anil Dhir, who claims to be a research scholar, historian and authority on Biju Patnaik and also a pilot has given a statement in some local media that Biju Patnaik had authorized him only to write his biography as Mr Patnaik knew that he was intimately known to him . Similarly another media person in an interview to a portal had claimed that Biju Patnaik had authorized him only to take photographs of the great son of Odisha.

Very strangely Mr Anil Dhir has mentioned that since he himself is a pilot and has done lots of research work on Dakota aircraft that were flown by Biju Babu,he knew for certain that Mrs Gyan Patnaik, had never accompanied Biju Babu to Indonesia in his rescue mission. He has also mentioned that Biju Patnaik was not a good pilot and had crashed as many as 14 Dakota Planes.

As far as my knowledge goes, Anil Dhir was never a certified pilot and simply he was a member of Bhubaneswar Flying Club which never trained anyone in flying Dakotas. Bhubaneswar Flying Club was providing training in a Tiger Moth plane.

While Mr Dhir claimed that Mrs Gyan Patnaik , though had a commercial pilot licence had never accompanied Biju Babu in his rescue mission.

Claims made by Mr Dhir are nothing but white lies as being very close to Mr Patnaik for about half a century, as a media person Mr Patnaik had described many a times before me about his rescue mission. Moreover, while making the film “JUGA SARATHI “ on the daring life of Biju Patnaik,in 1990 with the active cooperation of Gourmohan Sarangi ,the then Private Secretary of the leader of the opposition Biju Bbau had narrated about his hair-rising daring adventures and how Mrs Patnaik was associated with him in the rescue operation of Indonesian leaders at the instance of Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru, the then Prime Minister of India. Biju Babu also narrated how he was taking the risk of flying freedom fighters Jayaprakash . Narayan, Aruna Asaf Ali and Rammanohar Lohia who had gone underground to escape arrest by the British Government. Mrs Aruna Asaf Ali, who was one of the founders of LINK news weekly and PATRIOT daily had also narrated before me about daring deeds of Biju Babu in shifting them from one hideout to another in the planes while he was serving as a pilot of British Force, risking his job and life.

“JUGA SARATHI” was shot in VHS format for which the script was prepared by me and Mr Sarangi. I had to travel to the nooks and corners of Odisha to shoot the film to record about contributions of Biju Babu for modern Odisha. Biju Babu’s devoted followers like Nalini Kanta Mohanty, Bijoy Mohapatra, Srikanta Jena, Ashok Das, and Sarat Kumar Kar also extended cooperation for the production of the film. It was edited by award winner Odia Editor Rabi Patnaik. A long interview of Biju Babu narrating his experience from childhood, school days, college days, and craze to become a pilot was included in the film for which Mr Patnaik had to spend lots of time during the shooting in suggesting few materials for inclusion in the film. We had to get the support of some artists to prepare sketches to establish about activities of Biju Babu during childhood, how he had risked his life in jumping into the flooded river to get back the umbrella of Pundit Gopabandhu while doing relief work for the affected people.

This became a big success and during the 1990 Assembly elections, hundreds of copies of the VHS film were prepared and exhibited in Assembly constituencies by the Janata Dal candidates.

After coming back to power for the second time as the Chief Minister, Biju Babu patted my back and thanked the young members of my team for mobilizing public opinion through JUGA SARATHI.

I was also very closely associated with Biju Babu as the State Capital representative of the KALINGA, Odia daily which was founded by him. I was fortunate enough to travel a lot with Biju Babu in Dakota aircraft during air dropping of relief materials. On few occasions, Dakota Planes of JAMAIR were also hired for air-dropping of relief materials during floods and Biju Babu gave instructions to the pilots about the spots where the food packets were to be dropped.

I knew many people who were politically and socially close to Biju Babu. His nephew Ajit Mohapatra a known person in the field of engineering and industry had planned to publish an authentic biography of Biju Patnaik and I was assigned to execute the photography. But unfortunately, Mr Mohapatra expired suddenly.

Presently Biju Bbau’s nephew Jagadananda Mohapatra,who happens to be the younger brother of Ajit Mohapatra is living in Bhubaneswar and can provide correct information about Biju Babu. Moreover, great Odia singer Pranab Patnaik and his wife Kasturika Patnaik also had close relations of the great leader. Strangely our media persons hardly care to contact them to know about Biju Babu but prefer to publish/circulate cock and bull stories circulated by some self-styled researchers like Anil Dhir.