When 58 ministers were sworn in as part of the new cabinet of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 30 May, one person, who began to be widely hailed as a real hero, was Pratap Chandra Sarangi. Several journalists who covered the 30 May swearing-in ceremony or were present there, took to social media to pay rich tributes to Sarangi’s austere lifestyle.
Defence analyst Abhijit Iyer-Mitra, who had to face time in an Odisha jail last year after he was accused of insulting the sentiments of local Odiya population, wrote while sharing a photo of him with Minister Sarangi ‘whose entire possessions fit in a suitcase.’ He signed off his post by stating, “From India’s richest to India’s most humble.” Other pro-government journalists quickly declared him Odisha’s Modi drawing a parallel with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his rise to power.
Many shared photos of his election campaign while riding his bicycle as proof of his austerity in the election campaign where he was pitted against two of the richest politicians in Odisha politics. Former MP from Balasore Rabindra Kumar Jena of the BJD, who had declared his assets worth more than Rs 57 crore. Nabajyoti Patnaik, son of Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee president Nirajan Patnaik, had declared his assets in excess of Rs 1 billion. Sarangi’s election affidavit, on the other hand, said that he had assets worth Rs 10.18 lakh.
His austere living condition aside, Sarangi is no hero as is clear from his election affidavits. He faces 10 counts of criminal cases and charges against him including rioting, arson, assault and damaging government property. In 2002, he was arrested along with 67 people for attacking the Orissa state assembly by Hindu rightwing groups, including the Bajrang Dal, which he was associated with for a long time.
Interestingly, when Sarangi was arrested for attacking the state assembly building, a symbol of democracy, the state of Odisha was governed by the BJP-BJD coalition.
Sarangi was the state coordinator of the militant Hindu organisation Bajrang Dal in 1999 when one of its workers, Dara Singh, burnt alive Australian Christian missionary Graham Staines and his two children Phillip (10) and Timothy (6) as they slept in their four-wheeler in a nearby village of Manoharpur, around 60 kms from Balasore. Graham Staines and his wife Gladys Staines ran a centre in Mayurbhanj to rehabilitate lepers, who were discarded by their own loved ones for the fear of catching leprosy from them.
Academic Ashok Swain, who hails from Odisha but is based in Sweden, wrote, “Dara Singh of Bajrang Dal had burnt alive Graham Staine & his two minor sons in 1999 in the middle of night while they were sleeping inside a Jeep- His coordinator was Pratap Sarangi, who is now Modi’s only minister from Odisha!”
Dara Singh of Bajrang Dal had burnt alive Graham Staine & his two minor sons in 1999 in the middle of night while they were sleeping inside a Jeep- His coordinator was Pratap Sarangi, who is now Modi’s only minister from Odisha! https://t.co/mYzAbkHhSn
— Ashok Swain (@ashoswai) May 31, 2019
While supporters of BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have been quick to highlight one aspect of Sarangi’s life, it’s imperative that the dodgy past of India’s new minister too is made public. Sarangi has been made the Minister of State in the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and Minister of State in the Ministry of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries, in the new Modi cabinet.