Jual Oram does a somersault; says only attributing people’s perception

BHUBANESWAR: A day after dropping a bombshell by saying that the centre is lenient on Odisha government over chit fund and mining scams, union Tribal Affairs minister Jual Oram on Saturday backtracked from his statement, even as opposition Congress slammed both BJD and BJP of striking a secret deal for their individual gains.

Doing a u-turn from his controversial statement, Oram said he was only attributing the general perception of people in Odisha.

“I only pointed out the public perception about CBI probe into chit fund scam. BJP and BJD are two independent parties, and they have no secret alliance.BJD sometimes support the centre and oppose sometimes,” said the Tribal Affairs Minister.

He said the centre is not intervening into the functioning of CBI probing chit fund scam in the state.

Oram on Friday had said “The Centre let the BJD government off the hook in chit fund and mining scams. Otherwise, the state government would have been finished by the CBI.”

However, the statement of Oram has provided enough ammunition to opposition Congress to hit out at both ruling BJD and BJD over the issue. It does not want to die the issue without maligning both the parties for their tacit deal.

The leader of the opposition and senior Congress leader Narasingh Mishra said the allegation brought by the Congress party that both the parties have a tacit deal to bail out each other has vindicated.

“Long back, I had raised it that Narendra Modi and Naveen Patnaik have struck a grand alliance to bail out each other on several issues. Modi has assured that it will protect the state government from the ongoing CBI probes into various scams, while Naveen will reciprocate by pledging BJD’s support to BJP in the Rajya Sabha, where NDA is at minority position,” said Mishra.

Now, the cabinet minister of the Modi government has proved my stand, he added.

Finding it difficult to make any statement on the issue, Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan made a cautious remark.

“I have not seen what he (Jual Oram) has said. I only came to know through print media. I will talk to him to know what context he said so,” said Pradhan.

BJD MP Bhartruhari Mahtab said Oram like such a senior leader might not have spoken such irresponsible statement.