Congress has no strength, building fake narratives: Dhami

Ahead of crucial assembly elections in Uttarakhand, where the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) is set to lock horns with the Congress, chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said the Opposition party’s attempt to build a Dalit narrative with the Haldwani “purification” issue, has been busted, and nothing of that sort took place. In an interview with HT, Dhami also spoke on wide-ranging issues including Char Dham development, rising weather disasters, political slugfest over the Special Intensive Review (SIR) and controversy regarding Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s purification charge. Edited excerpts:

Elections are around the corner. How is the party and government gearing for it?

Since Narendra Modi ji became PM, a lot of developmental works have taken place in Uttarakhand -- developing all weather Char Dham road and Delhi-Dehradun expressway; setting up several medical colleges including the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS); the Rishikesh Karanprayag railway line; and improvement in air services including expanded Dehradun airport. The PM has also inaugurated winter pilgrimage in 2025 and is the first Prime Minister to visit the last Indian village, Mana, in Chamoli; he said it was India’s first village. The PM has visited Uttarakhand 28 times, which no other PM has done.

Experts believe lot of ecological damage has happened because of infrastructure works such as the Char Dham road. What is the government doing about it?

We have tried to strike a balance between economy and protecting ecology. People of Uttarakhand are not responsible for cloudburst or flash floods because nowhere in the state has haphazard construction happened. Such events took place even at remote places in Uttarakhand where no development work was carried out.

It could be because of the trees been cut in large numbers over several decades impacting local weather patterns?

Uttarakhand, because of its 71% forest cover, provides ecological protection and its glaciers stabilise temperature. We have not contributed to climate change induced disasters but have to bear maximum brunt. One cannot blame development for disasters caused by rising global temperature.

A few months ago, we saw a protest by the Cockroach Janta Party in Delhi; youth have been protesting in Uttarakhand too over unemployment. What you have done to deal with this issue?

In five years, we have provided jobs to more than 35,000 youth in a transparent and corruption free manner. There were no complaints of malpractices or cheating during recruitment. We introduced a stringent law against examination malpractices and sent 100 people of cheating mafia to jail.

Special Intensive Review (SIR), also happening in Uttarakhand, has become a national issue. Do you think that concerns raised are genuine or political?

The Election Commission is doing its work as per Constitutional mandate. SIR is not happening for the first time. Before this, SIR has happened several times. This time, SIR is happening in a better way. Names of those who have died, shifted or are bogus have been removed. If electoral rolls are being cleaned, why are some people so upset?

In Bengal, the EC introduced a filter called logical discrepancy to remove voters, causing a lot of inconvenience to voters.

The EC has now clarified that the Booth Level Officers will visit homes to collect documents from those who have got notices. In such a big exercise, there is always a scope for improvement, which EC is doing. Some people are criticising SIR to justify their electoral loss. Sometimes, they blame the EC and sometimes the Electronic Voting Machine for their electoral loss.

Uttarakhand became the first state to implement the Uniform Civil Code. What has been the state’s experience so far?

In the last general election, we promised UCC, and I am happy to say that we fulfilled the promise. UCC implementation has been smooth without any protest and lakhs of people have benefitted. The law is for betterment and empowerment of women and it also provides protection to the elderly. It is law to protect everyone as per the Constitution.

The Pauri hotel receptionist (the woman who was murdered, after allegedly being sexually assaulted) case has been going on a long time. Despite CBI inquiry, the name of the VIP mentioned in the case has not been revealed. And the Congress is trying to make it an election issue.

The Congress does not have any election issue in Uttarakhand and has no political strength left. The Congress is trying to build a fake narrative. A fact check of Rahul Gandhi’s Chhatron Ki Goonj programme in Pune revealed 13 lies. When he came to Uttarakhand, he said no action has been taken against examination malpractices. I want to tell him that over 100 persons have been arrested.

The Congress tried to build a fake Dalit narrative in Haldwani, where during a rally by their national president (Mallikarjun Kharge) jihadi slogans were raised. The national president said in Rajya Sabha that because he was a Dalit, purification was done on the site later. This is not true. The cleaning was done by people including Dalits of the huge garbage left behind and for raising jihadi slogans at sacred Ramlila Grounds.

In Pauri receptionist murder case, the Congress was again exposed for a fixed audio clip on the alleged VIP connection. We formed a Special Investigating Team (SIT), which submitted a 1,000 page charge-sheet. The three accused were sentenced for life in jail and we have referred the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as per request of the family. Now, CBI will reveal the truth.

Last week, controversy broke over playing of loud music at Badrinath Dham. You also participated at the event.

In Badrinath ashram, there is belief that God is meditating and therefore, there should not be any noise. It was an Army function and I had also gone for its conclusion. No music was played when I was there. We will prepare a SOP so that something similar does not happen in future.