Former chief minister of Uttarakhand and senior Congress leader Harish Rawat has been holding protests against the ruling BJP on various issues. His protests in the last three days have stirred the state politics, forcing the ruling BJP to come up with a counter as well as leaving his party opponents uneasy.
Rawat was in quarantine as per Covid-19 norms after returning from Delhi. He launched the protests after finishing his 14-day home quarantine.
On Monday, Rawat held a bullock cart rally in Dehradun on the issue of fuel price hike followed by a sit-in protest on Tuesday near Governor house against the state government for booking Congress leaders on ‘false cases.’
On Wednesday again, the Congress leader held an agitation against the BJP-led NDA government on fuel price hike in Dehradun.
During the protest, he attacked chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat by accusing him of doing politics through BJP’s virtual rallies across the state but asking him (Rawat) to “stop doing politics in the pandemic”.
“The CM had said today that I should stop doing politics in the pandemic through my various events which is just ridiculous. It is actually he and other BJP leaders who have been doing politics through their virtual rallies across the state in which they have been attacking Congress. I want to ask, if that is not politics in then is it ‘Gita Paath or Ramayan’s Choupai’?” said Rawat.
“However, paying heed to his request of postponing my protest events amid pandemic, I have decided to do the same for my upcoming events. But we will keep raising the issues of the public against the government,” he said.
His protests have rattled the ruling BJP with its senior leaders coming out to counter him.
Former BJP state president and present MP from Nainital-US Nagar, Ajay Bhatt, termed these protests a “drama”.
“The protests of Harish Rawat are just show-offs and mere drama. It would have no effect on us because Rawat knows that Congress is under attack for taking money from China as well as misusing the PM Relief Fund during their rule. He and other Congress leaders have no answer to them, hence this drama,” said Bhatt.
Not only the BJP, Rawat’s opponents within the party have also become uneasy with his protests which have been grabbing all the attention.
A senior party leader who didn’t wish to be named said, “Of course Rawat has made his opponents in the party uneasy because they cannot tolerate that he alone with his protests have been grabbing the eyeballs. These antics actually dampen their efforts to sideline him in the party and Rawat being a highly seasoned politician knows that very well.”
The political experts also believe that it’s very difficult to keep Rawat out of the political picture of Uttarakhand.
MM Semwal, political expert and professor of political science in Garhwal Central University in Srinagar, Pauri Garhwal, said, “Rawat has got his reach to every corner of the state as he has worked on grassroots. He knows how to shake the government as well as his opponents within the party and that is exactly what he is doing.”
“Apart from that, Rawat is doing what an actual Opposition should do – to not let the government sit in its comfort zone. If the government and his opponents think that they can silence him, they are totally wrong,” said Semwal.
