The 'secular' reiteration started a day ahead of the National Integration Council, where Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik was expected to face a fusillade over the communal violence in the state. Now, at least 37 dead and buried in Orissa, he is telling his state the same: “Every bone in my body is secular.”

Four days after he said this on NDTV, the Chief Minister and his partymen organised a massive rally propagating “peace” and “harmony” in Bhubaneswar. The 5,000-plus BJD workers carried photographs of Patnaik, captioned with the slogan “each bone in my body is secular”.

“We have to work hard to strengthen communal harmony among people belonging to different religions and castes. The state will progress if people from all religions and castes live together,” Patnaik said, as the party invited Muslims, Sikhs, Christians and Hindus to publicly certify the Chief Minister’s secular credentials.

Under fire from all quarters, Patnaik has been showing signs of distancing himself from the Sangh Parivar. In the same TV interview, he said he considered the Bajrang Dal a fundamentalist outfit, and added that half of the 1,000-odd people arrested in the state for rioting belonged to the Bajrang Dal and VHP. The BJD itself is rallying around Patnaik, who has found himself a lonely figure in the party. Today senior leaders like Lok Sabha MPs Prasanna Acharya, Prasanna Patsani and former minister Damodar Rout — conspicuous by their absence since riots broke — were present to lend Patnaik a helping hand.

The Sangh Parivar has been quick to notice the widening gap between it and one of its oldest allies. While the Bajrang Dal and VHP attacked Patnaik for his comments, the BJP too said his statements were unfortunate and that the Bajrang Dal was a “nationalist organisation”.

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