Pakhala (fermented rice, pronounced paw-KHAA-lraw) is Odisha’s staple food, especially in the summer months. Whether it’s the rich, the poor, or the middle class, people of Odisha love to relish this dish in the sweltering mid-year heat. This food habit may have originated as an integral part of the daily life of the not-so-privileged sections for centuries, but with increasing awareness about its health benefits, it has lately made its way among the relatively privileged sections of the Odia society as well.In order to highlight this uniquely Odia food, the erstwhile Naveen Patnaik government had in 2015 decided to observe a Pakhala Divas every year. March 20 was the chosen date, a day that presages the onset of summer in Odisha. Patnaik, his ministers and party leaders used to celebrate the day by inviting guests, especially non-Odias to partake of this delicacy. The picture of Naveen Patnaik’s pakhala lunch with a former President of India, a former Prime Minister and deputy Prime Minister, and a prominent opposition leader had created quite a buzz. Every major guest from Delhi or elsewhere was invariably treated to the pakhala delicacy by the Patnaik government, usually at his own residence. It was a smart move.However, since the BJP government has come to power in the state in 2024, there is no cohesive government strategy as such as the chief minister Mohan Majhi’s writ does not run beyond holding Janata Durbars. Every minister is now autonomous in his or her ministry; and each of them is busy devising devious ways to make money and enrich the cronies through every possible opportunity. Examples are galore. And one of the latest revelations is how the deputy chief minister and tourism minister Pravati Parida turned the innocuous Pakhala Divas into a profiteering enterprise.What happened on Pakhala Diwas this year?The state tourism ministry spent Rs 2.32 crore in observing Pakhala Divas on March 20 this year. The Naveen government had possibly not spent even a fraction to observe this event in any year as it would usually be a held at his residence. The details of the expenditure came to light earlier this month and has expectedly caused an uproar. Parida’s specious plea that she wanted to do international branding of pakhala was a poor joke. Without a clue regarding pakhala’s probiotic benefits; she kept harping that she wanted to popularise a food item eaten by the poor in Odisha so that the big film stars would be tempted to taste it. The minister, it seems, is unaware that non-resident Odias have already made pakhala a popular dish in every city they are residing in the country and abroad.Anyway, what did Parida plan for the branding of pakhala? She announced that the government had planned to cook and distribute 850 kg of rice among 2,000 poor people in the state capital of Bhubaneswar – an event so large-scale, she claimed, it would enter the Guiness Book of Records and that would do the requisite branding.How can you create national branding for pakhala by holding a Pakhala Festival in Odisha, where eating pakhala is already a way of life for every other Odia? It could have made sense had the minister organised the festival in other state capitals and metropolises.Just a pretext?But then, for the minister, Pakhala branding was a pretext; the real purpose was to make money and patronise the cronies. This is revealed by details of expenditure of the event, which was meant to be organised by the Odisha Tourism Development Corporation (OTDC).The OTDC is supposedly a professional body for holding such events; but they also roped in a crony event management firm called Colorplus Media – a company which was registered only in February 2025, whose authorised capital is Rs 15 lakh and paid-up capital is just about Rs 5 lakh. This company was paid Rs 86 lakh by the BJP government to manage the grand event on Pakhala Divas. The OTDC, too, had received Rs 68 lakh to do the same job, to manage the event. Which of these two did what was not specified.What is indeed a greater mystery was the need to bring in sundry chefs from outside Odisha to prepare pakhala and the accessory items. Odisha is the state where pakhala finds pride of place in the menu of thousands of small and big restaurants and even many star hotels but the minister felt they were incapable of bringing out its authentic taste; so she decided to fly in some cooks from Delhi, some nondescript ones, to do the branding of Pakhala! And, what did they do that Odisha’s celebrated cooks could not have done? How much did the minister spend on these non-Odia cooks? Rs 3 lakh on their flight tickets and Rs 2 lakh for their hotel stay, and Rs Rs 9.5 lakh for their food. They came to highlight pakhala and apparently ate mutton biryani in their starred hotels. Even then, can you imagine Rs 9.5 lakh hotel food bill for a handful of guests for a one-day event? Mysteriously, Panthniwas, the OTDC’s official guest house, also received Rs 9.5 lakh for miscellaneous expenses on account of these guests.That is not all; the minister conceived a brilliant idea to invite some social media influencers from outside the state to highlight the event. When the government is the sponsor of such a mega event, do you need nondescript YouTubers to highlight the occasion? And, what did they do? It was amateurish publicity. Dreadfully, the minister saw nothing wrong with spending Rs 8 lakh of public money on ‘souvenirs’ for these so-called influencers.A paid Guinness Book record?Ultimately, Pakhala Divas did enter the Guinness Book of Records. But what was this record about? That 1,174 kg of Pakhala was put together in one container. The record was about the size of the serving, not about the quality of the food. The certificate said: “The largest serving of fermented rice (Pakhala) was achieved by Odisha Tourism on 20 March 2026.” How is this branding for pakhala? Tomorrow if anyone serves 1,175 kg of dal or any other dish from one vessel, it would break the pakhala record. And what what record would that be? Do you see how farcical this exercise was? The moot question is: at what cost? Parida’s ministry, as per the expenditure list, apparently paid a whopping Rs 32 lakh to Guinness World Records for this certificate. That’s a mystery. As per official policy, Guinness issues certificates free of cost if an individual/organisation seeking a world record certificate submits all documents and videos and, on examination, is found eligible for it. Priority Application Service costs around Rs 1 lakh. So why did Parida’s ministry end up paying Rs 32 lakh to Guinness World Records? Did the money go via a third party patronised by the minister? Was this a scam? It needs serious investigation.In the end, the branding Parida achieved for pakhala by conducting this mega show was: feeding pakhala to a poor woman is an expensive affair – it costs Rs 2.32 crore to the state exchequer to feed 2,000 people. By simple arithmetic, that is Rs 12,000 a meal!