Biju Patnaik

Bijayananda Patnaik (5 March 1916 – 17 April 1997) was an Indian politician, aviator and businessman. He served as the 3rd Chief Minister of the State of Odisha from 1961 to 1963 and from 1990 to 1995. He was also the 14th Steel and mines and 1st Coal Union Minister of India from 1979 to 1980 and from 1977 to 1979 and a member of Lok Sabha from Kendrapara from 1977 to 1985. He is the father of Naveen Patnaik, also a former Chief Minister of the state.

Biju Patnaik was born into what has been described as an ‘aristocratic’ Karan family.^[1][2] His parents lived in Ghumusar Nuagam, Bellaguntha, Ganjam district, around 80km from Bramhapur.^[3] Biju Patnaik's father Laxminarayan Patnaik was the Dewan of Paralakhemundi Estate under Maharaja Krushna Chandra Gajapati.^[4] Biju Patnaik was educated at Ravenshaw College in Odisha but, due to his interest in aviation, dropped out and trained as a pilot.

Patnaik flew with private airlines but at the start of the Second World War he joined the Royal Indian Air Force. He eventually became the head of air transport command. While in service, he developed an interest in nationalist politics and used air force transports to distribute nationalist literature among Indian troops, which British authorities regarded as subversive. He was imprisoned by the British authorities for flying unauthorized missions and distributing political leaflets in support of Indian independence. However Patnaik remained committed to fighting the Axis powers.^[5]

Patnaik met Jawaharlal Nehru during his participation in Indonesian freedom struggle and formed a political association with him. Nehru viewed the freedom struggle of the Indonesian people as parallel to that of India, and viewed Indonesia as a potential ally. When the Dutch attempted to quell Indonesian independence on 21 July 1947, President Sukarno ordered Sjahrir, the former prime minister of Indonesia, to leave the country to attend the first Inter-Asia Conference, organised by Nehru, in July 1947^[6] and to foment international public opinion against the Dutch.^[7] Sjahrir was unable to leave as the Dutch controlled the Indonesian sea and air routes. Nehru asked Patnaik, an experienced pilot, to help evacuate Sjahrir and other Indonesian leaders.^[8] Patnaik and his wife flew to an airstrip near Jakarta and landed on an improvised airstrip near Jakarta. Using left-over fuel from abandoned Japanese military dumps, Patnaik took off with Indonesian political leaders such as Sjahrir and Sukarno, for a secret meeting with Nehru at New Delhi and brought out on a Douglas C-47 (Dakota) military aircraft reaching India via Singapore on 24 July 1947.^[9]

For his role in assisting Indonesian leaders, Patnaik was awarded honorary citizenship in Indonesia^[10] and received the Bhoomi Putra award,^[11] described as one of Indonesia’s highest honours, rarely granted to a foreigner. In 1995, when Indonesia was celebrating its 50th Independence Day, Biju Patnaik was awarded the highest national award, the Bintang Jasa Utama.^[12] The Dakota laid abandoned at Kolkata airport before being restored and put up on display at Bubhaneswar airport.^[13]

In 2015, Sukarno's daughter Megawati Sukarnoputri recounted how it was Patnaik who suggested she be named Meghavati or "daughter of clouds". She, whose full name is Diah Permata Megawati Setiawati Sukarnoputri, later became Indonesia's first female president, serving from 2001 to 2004.^[14][15]

In 2021, the Indonesian Embassy in New Delhi designated a room in the name of Patnaik. On the walls of the Patnaik room are photographs, newspaper clippings and letters that document Mr. Patnaik's secret assignments to fly out Indonesian leaders, as well as his relations with the Indonesian leadership.^[16]

Patnaik flew the first of many sorties on his Dakota DC-3 from Delhi Safdarjung Airport on 27 October 1947, after the first Dakota DC-3 (Reg. No: VP 905) flown by Wg. Cdr. KL Bhatia landed in Srinagar Airport early morning. Which followed right after the signing of the Instrument of Accession by Maharaja Hari Singh on 26th of October, 1947. He brought 17 soldiers of 1st Sikh regiment commanded by Lt. Col. Dewan Ranjit Rai. He flew low on the airstrip twice to ensure that no raiders were around. Instructions from Prime Minister Nehru's office were clear: If the airport was taken over by the enemy, he was not to land. Taking a full circle the DC-3 flew ground level, the crew observed that the airstrip was empty. Not a soul was in sight. No opposing combatants were present at the airfield at that time.^[17][18][19]

Patnaik has been described as supporting socialist and federalist principles. He advocated the equitable distribution of resources among Indian states, a position noted in his political speeches and writings.

In 1946 Patnaik was elected uncontested to the Odisha Legislative Assembly from North Cuttack constituency. In 1952 and 1957 he won from Jagannathprasad and Surada, respectively. In 1960 he assumed the presidency of the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (state unit of the Congress Party). Under his leadership, the Congress Party won 82 of 140 seats, and Patnaik (representing Chowdwar constituency) becoming Chief minister of Odisha on 23 June 1961 at the age of 45, and remained in the position until 2 October 1963 when he resigned from the post under the Kamaraj Plan to revitalise the Congress party.

During this period due to his proximity to then Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru, Patnaik assumed the planning and special projects mandate of the defense ministry of India becoming an "overseer of the defense effort." With his skills and qualifications in the field of aviation and guerilla warfare during the Second World War, Patnaik carried out a one-man covert mission to Washington DC in March 1963. He conveyed to Robert McNamara and President of the United States John F. Kennedy the need and possibilities for collaboration between American and Indian agencies for specialised military assistance especially in the field of night fighter capabilities of the Indian Airforce and special forces. During this visit he also made a stop at the CIA headquarters to convey possible collaborations between the two nations related to the ongoing Indo-China conflict and worsening Indo-Pak relations. This visit led to the formation of the Aviation Research Centre at Charbatia airbase in Chowduar, Cuttack with the help of American experts and specialists like Ed Rector and Moose Marrero.^{[20][21][22][23]}

Patnaik had a political relationship with Indira Gandhi who took over the Congress Party in 1967. However, they clashed in 1969 over the presidential election. He left the Congress and formed a regional party—the Utkal Congress. His party won several seats in the 1971 assembly election. Patnaik then re-established contact with his old friend Jayaprakash Narayan (whom he knew from his WW2 days) and joined the JP movement as it gained support in 1974. When the Emergency was declared in 1975, Biju Patnaik was one of the first to be arrested along with other opposition leaders.^[24]

He was released in 1977. Later, in the same year, he was elected to the Lok Sabha for the first time from Kendrapara and became Union minister for steel and mines in both the Morarji Desai and the Charan Singh governments until 1979. He was re-elected to the Lok Sabha again in 1980 and 1984 from Kendrapara as Janata Party candidate despite the Congress wave in 1984 following Indira Gandhi's death. With the Congress defeat in 1989, he returned to active politics after the Congress defeat in 1989. He supported V. P. Singh during the period leading to Singh’s term as Prime Minister, chose to go back to Odisha, and prepared for the assembly election. In 1990 state assembly election, the Janata Dal won a two-thirds majority in the state assembly election, which saw Biju Patnaik being the Chief Minister of Odisha for the second time until 1995.

Patnaik was re-elected to the Lok Sabha in 1996 from Cuttack and Aska constituencies as a Janata Dal candidate. He retained the latter until his death on 17 April 1997 of cardio-respiratory failure.^[25]

In 1992, Patnaik left this quote for the people of Odisha;

"In my dream of the 21st century for the State, I would have young men and women who put the interest of the State before them. They will have pride in themselves, confidence in themselves. They will not be at anybody's mercy, except their own selves. By their brains, intelligence and capacity, they will recapture the history of Kalinga."^[26]

Patnaik was involved in establishing several industrial and infrastructure projects, including Kalinga tubes, Kalinga Airlines, Kalinga Iron work, Kalinga Refractories and the Kalinga, a daily Odia newspaper. In 1951 he established the international Kalinga Prize for popularisation of Science and Technology among the people and entrusted the responsibility to the UNESCO. He was involved in establishing or promoting several industrial and infrastructure projects, including the Port of Paradip, Odisha Aviation Centre, Bhubaneswar Airport, the Cuttack-Jagatpur Mahanadi highway bridge, Regional Engineering College, Rourkela, Sainik School Bhubaneswar, Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology-Bhubaneswar, NALCO (National Aluminum Company), Talcher Thermal Power Station, Balimela Hydel Project, HAL-Sunabeda and the Choudwar & Barbil industrial belts.

He also established the Kalinga Cup in football.

Institutions in Odisha named after Patnaik include the Biju Patnaik Airport at Bhubaneswar, the Biju Patnaik University of Technology, Biju Patnaik Stadium at Nalco Nagar, Angul etc. The Odisha government observes 5 March, Patnaik’s birthday, as Panchayat Raj Divas in his memory. The Biju Patnaik 5 Rupee commemorative coin was released in 2016. Reports noted that his coffin was draped with the flags of India, Russia, and Indonesia.^[27]

A commemorative Postage stamp was released by India Post to mark his 102nd birth anniversary.^[28][29][30]

Patnaik was an avid Bridge player.^[31] Biju married Gyanwati Sethi of Rawalpindi, a Kinnaird College, Lahore alumni, because his wife was from Punjab, he was sometimes referred to as a ‘son-in-law of Punjab’. She was the first Indian woman to get a commercial pilot's licence. In the 1940s, Gyanwati also known as Gyan Patnaik participated with Biju Patnaik in air missions during World War II, including the evacuation of civilians from Rangoon during the Japanese advance.^[32]

Together they had three children Prem, Naveen and Gita. Patnaik's younger son, Naveen Patnaik, was Chief Minister of Odisha until June 2024. His daughter, Gita Mehta, was an author. His elder son Prem Patnaik is a Delhi-based industrialist.

• List of chief ministers of Odisha
• Biju Sena

• New York Times article on Biju Patnaik
• Biju Patnaik: The Vision of a Patriot
• Tribute to Patnaik