It has been noticed that some unscrupulous persons have started claiming themselves as close to Odisha’s legendary Biju Patnaik and have 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 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 which 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 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.
While Mr Dhir claimed that Mrs Gyan Patnaik , though had a commercial pilot license 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 time 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 , Biju Babu narrated 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.
“JUGA SARATHI” was shot in VHS format for which the script was prepared by me and Mr Sarangi. I had to travel nooks and corners of Odisha to shoot the film. Biju Babu’s devoted followers like Nalini Kanta Mohanty, Bijoy Mohapatra, Srikanta Jena and Ashok Das had 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 overflowed river to get back the umbrella of Pundit Gopabandhu while doing relief work for the affected people.
This became a big success and during 1990 Assembly elections, hundreds of copies of the VHS film were prepared and exhibited in Assembly constituencies by the Janata Dal candidates finally Biju came back to power for the second term as the Chief Minister. He was more than happy and patted my back while thanking all others who had cooperated with me. I was very closely associated with Biju Babu for more than five decades. I was also associated with the Kalinga newspaper owned by him. I had accompanied him during the days of natural calamities and election campaigns. I had come across most of the people who were very close to him. But I had never come across Mr Aneel Dhir who claims to be very close to Biju Babu.
I would like to suggest all who claim to know much more about Biju Babu himself should come forward with documentary evidence to establish their claims and the media should not be swayed away by unfounded claims of such persons who are anxious to get publicity by marketing lies about Biju Babu.
amfnews