Former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat had the task of leading the Congress in the assembly elections this year. He lost from Lalkuan constituency, while the party’s tally was reduced to 19 seats. In an extensive interview, Rawat talks Indian Express about the huge loss of his party, his future and the future of the party, and BJP Government performance.
Part:
Pushkar Singh Dhami Administration has completed 100 days and is making many claims about the work done by it. How do you rate the performance of the government?
I think 100 days is not enough to judge the performance of the Chief Minister. We need at least one year and in that time only we can understand in which direction the government is working and what is its intention. There have been reports that there has been corruption in giving jobs. The government itself has admitted that there has been some corruption in recruitment in co-operative banks. The law and order situation is deteriorating. At least 10,000 youth have joined the list of unemployed in the last 100 days. More than 200 people died during Chardham Travel, Where are the medical services? The roads are in the worst condition. There are frequent power cuts.
you are against it Agnipath Plan. What’s your take on this?
This is a fraud against more than 50,000 youths who completed their medical and physical examination and were awaiting their appointment. Now you are saying that fresh recruitment will be done under the new scheme. It is a matter of great pride to be in the army in states like Uttarakhand and Haryana.
What will a 21 year old boy do when he retires? Where are the posts? Nearly 18,000 people have lost their jobs in Uttarakhand since the BJP government came to power. Their Chief Minister is saying that they will give reservation in jobs to firefighters. How will you give more than 50% reservation? There is no state where reservation is not already close to 48-50 per cent.
You have praised CM Dhami on many occasions.
Yes. In fact, I am going to appreciate them again for promoting honey and bay leaves in Champawat. I have also praised him for making important demands (extension of GST compensation and share on Tehri dam) before the Prime Minister. Narendra Modi, But there should also be results.
It is good that he is trying to rectify the mistake he made during the division of property with Uttar Pradesh and said that 25 per cent of Uttar Pradesh should be given to us. I appreciate it. The demand for extension of GST compensation is also commendable, and I am saying that it needs to be extended for another 10 years. If the CM is making the right noise, I will stand by him. However, if their voice is not heard, I would say that the ‘double engine’ they keep talking about is a non-starter.
The Supreme Court has commented on Nupur Sharma Conflict.
I appreciate and thank the Supreme Court’s comment. This decision has also shown the mirror to the central government and the BJP.
After you lost we heard you saying that the main reason for your defeat was the Muslim University dispute.
Initially, there were some flaws in the decisions related to me, especially on whether I should contest or not. If you are saying that I have to contest elections then you should have allowed me to contest from the seat I wanted. When it was mandatory for me to contest, my seat should have been decided when the candidates for the first 50 seats were announced. I chose one constituency from the remaining 20 seats. When I chose that seat (Ramnagar), it was changed after two days and I was asked to go to Lalkuan. When I reached Lalkuan, the candidate there did not like it. All this damaged the party’s prospects. However, I do not blame any one person for this.
Even after this we had a tough competition. To deal with this the Muslim University controversy was raised. The entire campaign system of BJP became active. The PM, dozens of union ministers and several BJP CMs, all started attacking me. They started saying things like they are giving free ration, and Congress is giving Muslim University. I challenged the BJP to show me the news article in which I had announced the creation of a Muslim University. BJP made and spread fake paper in his social media room. Party (Congress) however we do not need to address the allegations of Muslim University. Due to this people started suspecting that maybe BJP is telling the truth.
Do you think it was a mistake to declare you not the CM candidate?
I would not say so, but I believed that for the BJP to respond strategically, we need to say that we are fighting under this person. They (BJP) always make elections about (Narendra) Modi. Like if Modi had not propagated the Muslim University lie, it would not have worked. The lie was fabricated by him, and everyone else was just spreaders. People were looking at Modi and felt that he is saying so maybe Harish Rawat is doing something wrong.
One person (Congress leader Aqeel Ahmed) gave the memorandum (demand for Muslim University) and someone took it. It was later leaked to the media. Harish Rawat was not involved anywhere. This person (Ahmed) was promoted here as party state vice president and also sent to campaign for my daughter (Anupama Rawat) in Haridwar rural. All this was a well-planned conspiracy to establish that the said person is close to me…
BJP hatched this conspiracy against you or your own party did it?
I don’t know, but I have decided that I will go to court against it. I have given many chances to BJP to prove my claim. I will now demand justice and security.
Do you agree that the Congress is going through a bad phase at the state and national level? Do you have a revival plan?
Recently we met in Udaipur and analyzed everything in detail. We have taken more than 100 decisions on six major issues which are to be implemented or are being implemented. We will return to the old stand of the Congress. Our core strength is inclusiveness, nationalism and Indianness. We are the ones who have made the India of the 21st century.
But, our enemies have started calling us non-Indians and anti-nationals. They misled people about our inclusion and called it Muslim appeasement. We thought this misinformation wouldn’t work. But we forget that sometimes people need some spicy things too. Such spicy things were made in the RSS factory. They created a narrative and that’s why a new era started under the pretext of ‘Gujarat model’ which no one saw… We know that if we are on right path and follow right morality, then this is the only answer . People changed their taste in search of spices, but now they are getting disappointed even more.
Internal tussle continues in the state Congress. Is there any plan to deal with this?
My blessings are with the new leadership. As far as drag is concerned, such things happen inside any party. When four people dig a field, the shovels will always hit.
Have you ever considered leaving politics?
Everything has a time and this is not the case right now. Had the situation been normal for the Congress, and the party was strong, it would have been right. Today if I leave politics, you will give only half a page article in the newspaper. I can’t even leave the Congress because that would be a crime which I would not dare to commit. However, if Sonia (Gandhi) ji said ‘Harish now you are very tired’, then I will leave politics immediately.