Ink thrown at Odisha CM’s private secretary during district visit programme

The man who allegedly threw the ink is identified as Bhaskar Sahu, a native of Haripur village in the district. The police and security personnel deployed at the venue overpowered and detained him.

We Strongly Condem This Cowardly Act #StillUnstoppableCMO💪 #VKPandian pic.twitter.com/cgYhj1FyTw

— Devi Ranjan Tripathy (@tripathy_devi) August 19, 2023

Despite the attack, Pandian went on to attend the meeting with his white shirt and received grievances from people. Women, mostly the self-help group (SHG) members, wiped off the ink from his face.

Earlier on the day, the 2000-batch IAS officer, who has been serving as the private secretary of the Odisha chief minister since 2011, attended similar meetings at Kakatpur, Nimapara and Puri areas of the district.

The incident has triggered a political slugfest with BJD’s Satyabadi MLA Umakanta Samantaray accusing Sahu’s association with BJP and alleged political motive of the saffron party behind the ink attack. Scores of BJD leaders also took to social media to condemn and denounce the ink attack.

BJP however denied charges saying that they openly oppose Pandian’s visit to various districts but don’t believe in such tactics.

The development came a day after senior editor-turned politician and senior BJD leader Soumya Ranjan Patnaik took a jibe at Pandian. In an editorial on his own publication, Patnaik questioned Pandian’s “chopper ride” to districts to attend grievance meetings, which according to him would cost around Rs 300 crore.

Patnaik, who joined BJD in March 2018, also slammed the BJD leaders for making arrangements to make these programmes successful. Patnaik, however, faced backlash from several of his party colleagues for his comments in the editorial.

Pandian, said to be the most influential bureaucrat in Odisha, had earlier faced black flag protests and egg attacks from opposition parties during his visit to various other districts in recent months.