• Dr. Pradeep Joshi

In the wake of upcoming assembly elections in Uttarakhand, each political party has begun fitting its strategic chips. When the BJP took hold of power in 2017 with a massive mandate of nearly 45% pole votes and 57 assembly seats, it had been entirely inconceivable at the time that the state would spiral down towards instability and become a victim of bizarre political experimentation, culminating in a seemingly neverending and embarrassing replacements of Chief Minister. Despite these multiple attempts at experimentation, power seems to be slipping away from BJP’s clutches and facing the wave of anti-incumbency, BJP has resorted to its tried and tested policy of division and communalism.

The last 5 years have marked the failure of BJP government to legislate, deliver on its promises or bring development to the state. During his four-year span as the first Chief Minister, Trivendra Singh Rawat could bring about no significant change in either education, health or employment and his tenure will be remembered for the exploitation, humiliation and maltreatment of teachers, government employees and the suicides of farmers. Chief Minister himself insulted a female teacher and threw her out of his Janta Durbar. In a shocking and extremely unfortunate incident, a tormented businessman committed suicide before the eyes of agriculture minister. Even the much-hailed Migration Commission whose office was set up in Pauri, an event that had been celebrated by BJP as grand feat that would abate migration from hills, saw the very same office eventually migrated to Dehradun. The last nail in the coffin was hammered in when cries of the helpless and suffering seekers of treatment filled the state during pandemic. In this event too, the CM retained the health ministry to himself instead of setting up an independent ministry and retreated to his hibernation. Ultimately, the CM became so unpopular and unpalatable even to his own ministers and MLAs that they actively lobbied for his removal. A further embarrassment was caused when the Uttarakhand High Court ordered for an investigation into a corruption case surrounding the CM which was later stayed by the Supreme Court but by then the damage had already been done. While the CM prepared for a grand celebration of his four-year achievements, Teerath Singh Rawat was coronated as the new CM. The second CM would go on to achieve nationwide fame for his comical and bizarre statements and his whole tenure remained confined to mere theatrics to overturn the controversial decisions of his predecessor. It climaxed in the biggest scam that would be the Kumbh Corona test - a disgrace to the whole state - that had both the CMs TSR 1 and TSR 2 come eye-to-eye blaming each other for the catastrophe and finally on 2nd July TSR second’s CMship came to its early ignominious demise, whereafter the ascent of an inexperienced 45 year old Pushkar Singh Dhami over various other senior and powerful candidates left everyone bewildered. The only reasonable explanation behind this seems to be the multiple allegations of corruption, questionable behaviour and a sentiment of anti-incumbency prevailing against these old players. CM Dhami has busied himself in buttressing the egos of these old kingpins, piling extra ministeries of huge import such as PWD, Energy, Aapkari into the hands of controversial ministers. In another such act of pleasing his seniors, the CM removed the Karamkar Board’s Chairman Shamsher Singh Satyal who had levied charges of corruption based on solid evidence against the party’s most notorious and controversial labour minister Harak Singh Rawat. Another looming issue is the total inability to redress people’s grievances, almost all department workers have for one reason or the other gone on strikes, earning the state the title of “Strike’s State” as a response to which the CM is forming new committees one after the other in a hope to buy more time. Thereafter, the government has given DM and other officers the rights espoused in National Security Act increasing their power and the probability of aggression and oppression of protestors and opposition political workers.CM is full of promises in his daily announcements which aren’t being taken for more than political gimmickry. Amid accusations, counteraccusations and altercations among Ministers and MLAs, an uncomfortable central leadership’s effort to renew shine and save face by changing CM is proving ineffective and falling completely flat with a prevailing public sentiment being that in a bid to string everyone together on the basis of compromises, the CM is letting corruption fester right under his nose. While almost all ministers continue to embarrass the government and the CM, he evidently remains helpless and clueless.

Meanwhile if the opposition party Congress is to be considered, everything seems to be tweaking up. Congress party, for which Uttarakhand holds immense importance, understands that a victory in the state would reverberate in the national political scene. Party has chosen its most popular face and ex Chief Minister Harish Rawat as Chairman of the Election Committee whereafter his and the party’s popularity is soaring high which is being corroborated by multiple surveys shown on different news channels. The powerful duo of State Congress President Ganesh Godiyal and leader of opposition Pritam Singh have stirred up a momentum against the government’s anti-people policies through street protests. The kind of public participation and support garnered by Congress during Congress Committee’s multi-phased Parivartan Yatra is both surprise and cause of vexation to its opposition, surprise to the neutral and encouraging. From every quarter people are flocking to join the Congress party, amid which former State Congress Committee President Yashpal Arya who in 2017 had left the party to join BJP, has left behind heavyweight ministry in the current government and rejoined Congress along with his MLA son Sanjeev Arya, its message being glaringly obvious and clear. Yashpal Arya possesses tremendous influence in his Dalit community which would be beneficial to the party. In line with Gandhiji’s philosophy and dreams, since October 01, Congress Party commenced the “Gaon Gaon Congress” programme under which 700 Congress leaders and workers stayed in villages for 3 days across 670 village panchayats and made the effort to understand and address people’s problems, through which a new hope was birthed that it’s the Congress which would bring solution to people’s problems. CWC member and state Congress in-charge Devendra Yadav assures that this programme would relentlessly continue and bring into actual manifestation the concept of Gandhiji’s Swaraj. Sharing the programme’s success with all other leaders and workers, he believes that the training camps by state Congress committee would augment the value of “Gaon Gaon Congress”. He also believes that the way in which former Party President Shri Rahul Gandhi is fearlessly challenging the government’s wrong and anti-people policies and in the neighbouring Uttar Pradesh the way Smt. Priyanka Gandhi is fighting against the atrocities on farmers by the UP government, its benefit is also being witnessed in Uttarakhand.

Dangerous plans of an insensitive Government The real problem stems from the deepening resentment against the government and the growing support for Congress which has etched lines of worries all across BJP, compelling them to again resort to divisive and oppressive policies in a bid to control a disfavoring tide. In order to understand this, it’s imperative to look into the current events. Being a border and Central Himalayan state, Uttarakhand is an incredibly sensitive state involving the aspect of national security where even local residents have been trained by the SSB over international borders and some have been trained as guerillas or/and assigned responsibilities in the SSB itself. Unfortunately, and quite alarmingly, the current government has proved incapable of stopping migration from border areas and even foreign intrusion of these bordering areas.

At a time when there were widespread protests asking for stringent land laws, the government decided to scrap a law of Act 143 entailing a boundation that mandated a procedure to convert agricultural land to non-agricultural and brought about a new amendment that enables automatic conversion of land use upon purchase. Additionally, section 154-2 under which no more than 12 and a 1/2 acres of land could be purchased has also been altered. Not restricted to tourist heavens like Mussoorie and Nainital, large swathes of land in border areas like Pithoragarh, Chamoli and Uttarkashi have been sold out. Ironically but not surprisingly, the same government that scrapped the previous laws and brought forth these new ones has coined the term “Land Jihad”. In a letter to the CM, senior BJP leader and ex-state minister ranked Ajendra Ajay requested him to consider notifying the hill areas as special zones whereafter members of a particular religious community would be barred from carrying out any construction of a place of worship for their people. Sharing his sentiment CM Dhami claimed that people of this community are purchasing large tracts of lands in the hill areas and trying to construct places of worship for themselves since a long time, due to which demographic changes are afoot, which increases the susceptibility of communal tensions and violence. This term “Land Jihad” and its politics comes at a time when officers have admitted that there has been an increase in PLA’s activities in the bordering areas. Some time back, more than a 100 PLA soldiers on 55 horses intruded 5 kilometers till the Barahoti area and damaged a bridge before their retreat. Barahoti Peak is located to the north of Nandadevi National Park. Even the plain areas haven’t been spared from the communal agenda as in an act of deliberate and orchestrated communal violence, 200 people carrying weapons in hands broke into a church in Roorkee’s Solanipuram area and hurling accusations of conversion, vandalized the church property. This crowd was led by BJP’s Youth Wing, Hindu JagaranManch, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and other right-wing organizations. Solanipuram is a comparatively peaceful neighbourhood near IIT Roorkee with such incidents before being unheard of. Ex CM of State Harish Rawat and State President Ganesh Godiyal believe that in face of a definitive defeat in the state elections, BJP and its allies are using their trump card of divisive politics in a very planned way and that the state government has become instrumental in its efforts to divide the state along communal lines. Therefore, people of the state and Congress workers must remain vigilant, tread with care and participate in spreading communal harmony.

In the coming days, the current government can engage in sponsored incidents of communal division, the coming months are a test for local residents that a state with army background, whose youth are stationed safeguarding the borders, is competent in thwarting any effort to destabilize the state on communal grounds and that the people of this state would definitely help in forming a government that would establish and perpetuate communal harmony and foster development. The outcome of this election would be decisive in steering the course of the country’s direction.

The Author is a Chairman of Uttarakhand Vichar Vibhag