Tathagata Satpathy was born on 1 April 1956 and was a member of the 12th, 14th, 15th and 16th Lok Sabha of India.
34 Facts About Tathagata Satpathy
1.
2.
Tathagata Satpathy represented the Dhenkanal constituency of Odisha, and was re-elected for the fourth time in 2014.
3.
Tathagata Satpathy was a member of the Biju Janata Dal political party, and the party's chief whip in the Lok Sabha.
4.
Tathagata Satpathy took voluntary retirement from politics in March 2019.
5.
Tathagata Satpathy is the second son of former Odisha Chief Minister Nandini Satpathy and Devendra Satpathy.
6.
Tathagata Satpathy is the owner and editor of the daily Odia newspaper, Dharitri, and the English daily, Orissa Post.
7.
Tathagata Satpathy had done his mother language, Oriya, by self study.
8.
Tathagata Satpathy entered active politics in the mid 70s as a teenager opposing the Emergency clamped by the Indian National Congress.
9.
Tathagata Satpathy joined active politics in the late 1980s when Sri Biju Patnaik took him into the Janata Party and he got elected to the Odisha Legislative Assembly and became an MLA in 1990.
10.
Tathagata Satpathy went on to become a Four term Member of Parliament till 2019 by winning the Dhenkanal-Angul Lok Sabha seat in 1998,2004,2009 and 2014 general elections.
11.
In March 2015, Tathagata Satpathy became the first Indian Member of Parliament to hold an official "Ask Me Anything" session on the content-sharing website Reddit.
12.
In December 2015, Tathagata Satpathy had supported a bill to decriminalise homosexuality.
13.
Tathagata Satpathy said that he used such apps to interact with his constituency and this policy will hinder his functioning as a representative.
14.
Tathagata Satpathy has criticised the ban on cannabis in India, while pointing out the long history of its usage as a ritual and recreational intoxicant.
15.
Tathagata Satpathy has said that cannabis was banned in India while alcohol was not, because of "an elitist bias" as cannabis was a poor man's drug.
16.
Tathagata Satpathy has said the addiction depends on person's character and not on the intoxicant.
17.
Tathagata Satpathy has suggested an amendment to the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 to allow recreational and medicinal usage of marijuana.
18.
Tathagata Satpathy has condemned the Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalises homosexuality in India, calling it "archaic" and called for its repeal.
19.
Tathagata Satpathy had supported a bill introduced by INC MP Shashi Tharoor to decriminalise homosexuality during the 2015 winter session of the Parliament.
20.
Tathagata Satpathy has condemned moral policing and called for a repeal of laws banning pornography in India.
21.
Tathagata Satpathy has raised concerns that the Aadhaar project could be used for mass surveillance or ethnic cleansing in the future.
22.
Tathagata Satpathy has questioned why a new identity card project was created despite having several identity cards systems.
23.
Tathagata Satpathy has criticised the decision to present the Aadhaar Bill, 2016 as a money bill.
24.
Tathagata Satpathy pointed out that although the bill allows the sharing of biometric under circumstances of national security, there was no concrete definition of national security included in the bill.
25.
Tathagata Satpathy has criticised those current laws which are based on various religions, saying that the world is moving beyond religious scriptures and such laws only divide the society.
26.
Tathagata Satpathy has said that a lot of faith-based foreign aid comes to Odisha through missionaries.
27.
Tathagata Satpathy has said that politicians should use the dictionary definition of secularism to avoid confusion.
28.
Tathagata Satpathy has criticised the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana calling it flawed and that it looks good only on paper.
29.
Tathagata Satpathy said it forces him to choose only 8 villages from his constituency for development out of 3000.
30.
Tathagata Satpathy has opposed the proposal to make Hindi the national language.
31.
Tathagata Satpathy has criticised the construction of new nuclear power plants in India, claiming that most of the world was now moving away from nuclear energy.
32.
Tathagata Satpathy has claimed that Areva nuclear firm of France sold outdated technology to Maharashtra.
33.
Tathagata Satpathy has said that the centre should release the data regarding the safety of nuclear power plants as they are in other countries.
34.
Tathagata Satpathy is married to Adyasha Tathagata Satpathy who works as the CEO of Dharitri and OrissaPOST.