RSS reprimands Uttarakhand BJP govt for dealing arrogantly with public, asks it to check migration

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) on Thursday reprimanded the BJP government in Uttarakhand for dealing arrogantly with the public while instructing the latter to check forced migration from the hills.

The BJP government was also directed to adopt “an innovative approach” to development and marshal all its resources to implement the party’s “vision for development”, which was unveiled in the run-up to the 2017 assembly elections, party insiders said.

At a closed-door “coordination meeting” held on the outskirts of Dehradun, the RSS, the ideological mentor of the BJP, also directed the state government to be “watchful” of frequent military intrusions into Indian territory from China and civilian infiltrations from Nepal, a Sangh insider said.

According to him, the meeting was organised to assess the government’s performance in view of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, for which hardly nine months are left. Its appraisal also assumes importance because the ruling BJP is facing the challenge in retaining all five Lok Sabha seats in the state, which it swept in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

The “marathon” meeting which went on for five hours was attended by chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat, all his nine cabinet ministers, state BJP president Ajay Bhatt and the party’s four general secretaries. The party’s state in-charge Shyam Jaju was also present at the meeting.

It was presided over by RSS’s Kshetriya Pracharak Alokji, who is also its in-charge for Uttar Pradesh’s western and Brij regions besides Uttarakhand. RSS Prant Karyavah (state general secretary) Dinesh Semwal and its Prant pracharakYudhvir Singh were also present apart from state heads of the Sangh’s some 40 affiliates.

It was the second such meeting which was organised between the Sangh and the state government representatives after a similar interaction was held in the state last year.

An RSS functionary said that the Sangh expressed its displeasure over the “arrogance those running the government often display” while dealing with people. “Dealing with people arrogantly is not at all acceptable. You must remember that if they can elect you with a massive majority they can also throw you out in the next elections,” a senior RSS functionary quoted Alokji (who goes by his first name) as stating at the coordination meeting.

Sangh insiders said his (Alokji) statement was also “a clear hint for the chief minister who was recently seen in a video issuing oral suspension orders” against a teacher who was posted in a school in a remote area in Uttarkashi. The incident took place at a Janata Darbar held at the chief minister’s official residence in Dehradun. The teacher in question sought her transfer to an accessible area near Dehradun on the ground that hardly a few years were left for her retirement.

In that connection, Alokji is said to have asked those at the helm to take a leaf out of veteran Congress leader and former chief minister of Uttarakhand Naryan Dutt Tiwari’s book. According to a Sangh insider, he (Alokji) said the veteran leader (Tiwari) always treated people with humility despite having led a big state like Uttar Pradesh.

A senior state RSS leader said Alokji also expressed concern over the growing drug addiction among the youth in the state. “He (Alok ji) also instructed the government to enact strict laws to curb the drug menace which has ruined the youths in a state like Punjab,” the state RSS leader said.

According to him, Alok ji also instructed the state government to check forced migration by encouraging the local youth to take up small trades which are being grabbed by the Muslim youth from neighbouring states like Uttar Pradesh.

Officially, the RSS and the BJP refused to discuss the proceedings of the coordination meeting. “It (meeting) is an interaction that happens between the RSS and the BJP government. We can’t reveal what happened at the meeting,” state BJP vice-president Jyoti Prasaid Gairola said.

First Published: Aug 24, 2018 01:00 IST