Modi seeks votes in Uttarakhand speaking in the vernacular but ignores main issues

With the first phase of the current cycle of Assembly elections behind us, the battle is heating up for Round II on February 14, especially in Uttarakhand. A BJP Government currently reigns over the hill State and the party understandably wants to retain power. So while the Congress and AAP are trying to make inroads, the BJP is pulling out all the stops to endear itself once again to the voters. For this purpose, addressing a rally in Almora on Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi did what he does best: Playing with words to captivate his audience that actually has a dwindling bank account, if it has one at all, and doesn’t know how to negotiate the tough post-pandemic world. He seeks “another mandate” for the BJP, promising to take development to “Himalayan heights”. By the way, where was this plan germinating through the last five years that it has now suddenly spawned to the surface? Of course, there was the staple spiel of “Congress divides on caste, region and religion”, too. Basically, Modi loves to distract attention from key issues, which in this case would be infrastructure development, tourism, employment, environment, agriculture, floriculture and other organic produce.

He knows well that his Government has done nothing spectacular in the State, except replacing two Chief Ministers. During the peak of COVID-19, Uttarakhand hosted the Kumbh fair despite expert professional opinion. Only after a senior, revered mahant passed away after contracting the pernicious virus was the scale of the grand event lowered. However, he said that on the lines of Kedarnath, “where development has been given new impetus”, the Manaskhand tourism circuit would be developed in Kumaon on priority. Sadly for him, AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal has already played the “Dev Bhoomi’s religious tourism circuit” card a few days ago. So he conveniently changes the narrative to throwing on a Brahmkamal-inscribed pahadi topi and speaking a couple of sentences in the vernacular; invoking Dhari Devi and chanting “Jai Badri vishal” and “Jai Kedar baba” because that’s the easiest way to reach out to voters on an emotional level. It steers them away from real issues, which could’ve helped the youth stay back rather than turning migrants or, better still, spurring reverse migration. Uttarakhand votes in a single phase on Valentine’s Day, which the BJP has no love lost with, for the 70-member Assembly.