Sambit Patra

Sambit Patra (born 13 December 1974) is an Indian surgeon and politician. He is one of the official spokespersons of the BJP.[1] Patra was a former Medical officer at Hindu Rao Hospital. He was appointed as an independent director[2] of the board of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) in 2017.[3][4]

Sambit Patra
National Spokesperson of Bharatiya Janata Party
Assumed office
2014
Additional Director of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation
Assumed office
28 October 2017
Personal details
Born (1974-12-13) 13 December 1974
Bokaro Steel City, Bihar, (now in Jharkhand), India
Political partyBharatiya Janata Party
Alma mater
Occupation
  • Politician
  • physician

Early life and education

Patra was born in an Odia family[5] to Rabindra Nath Patra on 13 December 1974 in Bokaro Steel City, then part of Dhanbad district of the state of Bihar, which is now a part of Bokaro district of Jharkhand.[6][7] His father worked in the Bokaro Steel Plant. He did his primary and intermediate schooling in Chinmaya Vidyalaya, Bokaro.[7] He did his MBBS from VSS Medical College and Hospital, Burla, Sambalpur, Odisha in 1997 and his Master of Surgery (MS) in General Surgery from SCB Medical College, Cuttack, Utkal University in 2002.[7][4] He qualified the UPSC Combined Medical Services Examination in 2003 and joined Rao Hospital (located in Malka Ganj, Delhi) as a Medical Officer.[8]

Political career

Patra's political career started in 2010 when he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party as a spokesperson for the its Delhi unit. In 2012, Patra unsuccessfully fought a municipal election as the BJP's candidate from Delhi's Kashmiri Gate[9] and at the same time resigned from his job to pursue politics full-time. In the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections in 2014, Patra campaigned for the BJP and gained visibility on national television. When the BJP came to power, Patra became its national spokesperson.[10][11] In 2017, Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) appointed him as a non-official director of ONGC.[12]

Patra contested the Puri Lok Sabha seat in the 2019 Indian general election, and lost to sitting Biju Janata Dal (BJD) member Pinaki Misra by 11,700 votes.[13]

Controversies

In February 2016, Patra showed a manipulated version of the famous Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima photograph. Patra held up that image during a TV debate and claimed that the image showed Indian Army soldiers on India's border whereas the actual image depicted an island in the Pacific Ocean and referred to events in 1945 during the Second World War.[14][15]

During another television debate, Patra had shown video which purportedly showed Kanhaiya Kumar shouting secessionist slogans in Jawaharlal Nehru University.[16]

In September 2017, Patra was appointed as an independent/Non-Official Director (NOD) of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC) Board for a renewable term of three years. Him being an active member and official spokesperson of the ruling party (BJP) was viewed as a violation of the companies act and subsequently challenged in the Delhi High Court by Energy Watchdog (NGO). The petition also alleged the entire selection process to be "flawed".[17][18][19] In November 2017, The Delhi High Court dismissed the PIL on grounds of it being "Unsubstantiated" and "Without Merit". The court also stated that questioning Patra's independence to discharge his official duties as an independent director merely on his association with the ruling party (BJP) would be "Highly Inappropriate".[20][21] Later, the Supreme Court asked the NGO who filed the PIL to "Serve a copy to the Union of India". The SC Bench posted the matter for a later date and mentioned "After hearing preliminary arguments, we can issue formal notice."[22]

In February 2020, Patra tweeted a fake video of ex-INC MLA Naseem Khan chanting 'Pakistan Zindabad', which made the latter file a police complaint against Patra in Mumbai.[23][24]

References
  1. Administrator. "National Office Bearers". www.bjp.org. Retrieved 25 March 2018.
  2. Limited, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation. "ONGC - Board of Directors". www.ongcindia.com. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  3. "Sambit Patra to be up for reappointment on ONGC board". thehindubusinessline.com. Business Line. 25 January 2019. Retrieved 11 April 2020. Patra was appointed as an Independent Director on the ONGC board on October 28 last year.
  4. "Oil & Natural Gas Corp Ltd (ONGC:Natl India)". Bloomberg. Retrieved 17 October 2018.
  5. @sambitswaraj (13 May 2014). "Yes I am an Oriya :)) "@vivek5677: @sambitswaraj sir u r an oriya.orissa desperately need a leader/good orator like u."" (Tweet). Retrieved 27 October 2020 – via Twitter.
  6. "Sambit Patra(Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP)):Constituency- PURI(ODISHA) - Affidavit Information of Candidate". myneta.info. Retrieved 18 January 2020.
  7. "जानें क्‍या है भाजपा प्रवक्‍ता संबित पात्रा का धनबाद कनेक्‍शन, टिकट के दावेदारों में उछला नाम". Dainik Jagran (in Hindi). 10 February 2019. Retrieved 18 January 2020.
  8. "About Dr. Sambit Patra". Dr. Sambit Patra. Sambit Patra. Retrieved 25 March 2018.
  9. "Ward Wise Result Sheet MCD General Election -2012 Total Votes Polled" (PDF). webcache.googleusercontent.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 May 2017. Retrieved 25 March 2018.
  10. Saini, Shivam (26 December 2015). "Is Sambit Patra helping BJP's image?". Business Standard India. Retrieved 24 February 2017.
  11. Bamzai, Kaveree (22 December 2018). "The journey of BJP's Sambit Patra from a trained surgeon to a nasty TV star". ThePrint. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  12. Press Trust of India (30 September 2017). "BJP's Sambit Patra appointed to ONGC board". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 6 December 2018.
  13. TNN (24 May 2019). "Puri election result: Sambit Patra loses a close fight with Pinaki Misra". The Economic Times. Retrieved 24 May 2019.
  14. Sengupta, Shuddhabrata (21 February 2016). "The tricolour over Iwo Jima: The BJP confuses Photoshop for history yet again". Scroll.in. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  15. Sinha, Pratik (15 August 2017). "BJP Spokesperson Sambit Patra defames former Vice President Hamid Ansari". Alt News. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  16. Pullanoor, Harish (22 February 2016). "Firefighting with fake information: Is the Modi regime creating a new model of governance?". Quartz India. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  17. Indian, The Logical (7 March 2018). "Sambit Patra Appointed As Independent Director Of ONGC, Supreme Court Asks Centre Why". thelogicalindian.com. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  18. "BJP's Sambit Patra appointed to ONGC board". Hindustan Times. 30 September 2017. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  19. "Sambit Patra's appointment to ONGC Board challenged in High Court". The Economic Times. 25 October 2017. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  20. "Relief to Sambit Patra:HC rejected PIL against his appointment as ONGC director". India Whispers. 6 November 2017. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  21. "HC rejects PIL challenging Sambit Patra's appointment in ONGC". The Economic Times. 6 November 2017. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  22. "SC to hear Centre's reply to plea challenging BJP leader Sambit Patra's appointment to ONGC board". Scroll.in. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  23. Grewal, Kairvy (7 February 2020). "Sambit Patra shares fake video of ex-Congress MLA & asks followers to fact-check it". Retrieved 15 February 2020.
  24. "'Stop editing videos': Twitter slams Sambit Patra for sharing Cong leader's fake 'Pakistan Zindabad' video". Free Press Journal. 7 February 2020. Retrieved 29 November 2020.
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