Baijayant Panda clarifies; condemns Abhijit Iyer Mitra’s Remarks

ONI Bureau: Former Kendrapara MP Baijayant Panda strongly condemned the “derogatory” remarks made by Abhijit Iyer Mitra on the Sun Temple at Konark, saying it was an immature thing to do.

However Panda clearly mentioned that he has full love and respect for Odisha, Odia culture and had taken many steps to promote Odia culture and traditions outside Odisha.

Worth mentioning, in September 2017, Iyer had made some offensive and derogatory remarks on Odisha, Lord Jagannath and famous art and sculptures of Konark that hurt the sentiments of lakhs of Odia people across the world.

Although he wanted to be sarcastic, it did not go well with the people. That undid all good work done by him and Aarti Tikoo Singh as they promoted Odia heritage, culture and food, drawing appreciation from Twitterati.

Abhijit was also slammed for a November 2017 tweet when he took on Baijayant Panda who was batting for Rasagola. Mitra used derogatory words against Odisha then.