Bhubaneswar, May 15 (IANS): The Congress in Odisha has now jumped into the Odia Asmita and Odia language debate, alleging both the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of raising the issue keeping in view the ongoing Assembly and Lok Sabha elections in the state.

Speaking at a press conference here, senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said, “I gave a speech in the Parliament regarding Odia language on March 16, 2020. I said that Rs 650 crore has been spent on Sanskrit, while for Odia language the amount is zero under the Modi government.”

“During Manmohan Singh's rule, six languages -- Sanskrit, Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada, and Odia -- were given classical language status on February 20, 2014. Nothing has been done for the promotion of Odia language during the last 10 years. Yet, neither the Odisha government nor the MPs from the state raised any objections,” Ramesh added.

He also claimed that Congress is the only alternative before the people of Odisha in the face of the 'BJP-BJD alliance', as he accused the BJD of giving support to the BJP at the Centre on all the issues, including the anti-farmer laws.

He also accused the BJP government at the Centre of suppressing the CBI probe into the chit fund scam, mining scam, etc., in the state.

Ramesh said that so far voting has been completed in 379 Lok Sabha seats in four phases, and it is now apparent that the BJP will be wiped out from South India, and reduced to half in the rest of the country.

"It is also clear that the INIDA bloc will get a decisive majority on June 4," he claimed.

“PM Narendra Modi has realised that the common people are angry with him. The farmers, labourers, youth, women, and the backward classes are upset with him. There is no Modi wave at the grassroots level,” the Congress leader said.