New Delhi, March 31 -- The controversy over Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lawmaker Nishikant Dubey's remarks on former Odisha chief minister Biju Patnaik escalated on Monday, with the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) staging a walkout from the Rajya Sabha and party chief Naveen Patnaik terming the comments "outrageous". Not only opposition leaders, Dubey's party colleague Baijayant Panda was also critical of the remarks, describing the aspersions cast on the late leader as "ludicrous".

In a statement on March 27, Dubey had claimed that Biju Patnaik was the link between former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the US, during the 1962 India-China war.

Soon after the Rajya Sabha convened for the day, BJD lawm...