Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday said that only regional parties can fulfil the people’s aspirations at a time when the BJP is trying to make inroads in the eastern state and other places.

“Only a regional party will do justice to the aspirations of the youth of Odisha,” Naveen, also the ruling Biju Janata Dal president, said. He added that Odia is much more important than Hindi.

He also reminded both the BJP and the Congress that how they had forgotten the promise made in their election manifestoes of according special category status to Odisha in an oblique reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged Opposition parties to check their earlier manifestoes while talking about farmers’ issues.

Addressing the BJD youth wing executive committee meeting, Naveen said: “Both the national parties — the BJP and the Congress — had made the special category status their number one manifesto point. After the elections, they conveniently forgot about the promise. The BJD will continue to fight for the special category status and keep reminding national parties about their step-motherly treatment of Odisha.”

Reminding the people that the very purpose of forming a separate state is to preserve and protect its unique identity, Naveen said: “It is only a regional party, whose survival and growth is in sync with the development of Odisha, that can stand and fight for its people. The BJD as a regional party is synonymous with the aspirations and ideals for which the state of Odisha was formed.”

Maintaining that only a regional party can preserve Odisha’s unique identity, he said: “The mainstream national parties will make you a small drop in their vast ocean.”

Targeting the national parties, Naveen said history has shown that they always have a mainstream agenda. “It is only through mainstreaming that they can get maximum votes and form a government at the Centre. For this, their strategy revolves around a uniform language — Hindi, uniform culture and uniform policies which will appeal to the large populous states and then they try toimpose the same across the country ignoring the unique identity of certain populations,” Naveen said.

Maintaining that national parties are bound to compromise on the distinctive requirements of a state for gain in the larger national context, the chief minister said: “For us, our language Odia is more important than Hindi. For us our Mahanadi is more sacred than any other river. For us Odissi music is a classical art form.”

Naveen also reminded that the diversity and richness of tribal culture is Odisha’s strength. “Odisha has a unique and distinct identity. It is for this identity our forefathers sacrificed themselves and fought for a separate state,” he said.

Clarifying his stand on the issue, Naveen said: “For a national party or their branches in the states, these do not matter. The state leaders of national parties neither have the voice to insist on protecting our unique heritage nor do they have the intent to do so in a hierarchical centralised national party structure.”

The chief minister also reminded the people how the Congress governments in the state were remote controlled from Delhi. “The BJP governments in other states also follow the directions of the national leadership,” Naveen said. “We don’t have any bosses in Delhi. Four-and-a-half crore Odias are our boss,” he added.

Naveen also pointed out how the state was fighting for the water of Mahandi, fighting to declare Odissi music as a classical form and for inclusion of Kosali and Ho languages in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.