Harish Rawat | Arvind Jain
Q/ What are your main campaign issues?
A/ Our fight is to protect Uttarakhandiyat (the spirit of Uttarakhand). Five years of BJP rule has mauled the foundation of Uttarakhand and destroyed Uttarakhandiyat. We are looking for an opportunity to restore it.
Q/ You are leading the Congress campaign in the state. Are you the party’s chief ministerial face?
A/ The Congress high command has made me the face of our fight in Uttarakhand. The election is being fought under my leadership. So, it is purely a test of my leadership.
Q/ What is your strategy to counter the BJP’s hindutva plank?
A/ The Congress agenda is development, communal harmony and welfare of all people. I am also a Hindu who follows sanatan dharma and the teachings of Swami Vivekananda. But I certainly do not [fit the image of] the Hindu that the BJP likes to portray.
Q/ The BJP has been seeking votes in the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. How do you counter this?
A/ The BJP has failed miserably in Uttarakhand in all respects. Development has been derailed, unemployment is at its peak, medical services collapsed during the pandemic, and corruption is at its peak. Rampant mining has affected the state’s ecological balance. People call Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami khanan priya mukhyamantri (pro-mining chief minister).
Q/ So, is this a Modi vs Rawat contest?
A/ No. My challenge is against large-scale unemployment, and to preserve the spirit of Uttarakhand, which the BJP government has destroyed. The so-called ‘double-engine’ government, driven by Modi, has failed on all fronts. This election is Harish Rawat vs the BJP.
Q/ You have promised to take strict action against hate speeches in Haridwar if you come to power.
A/ We will certainly take this very seriously. The act is an insult to the devbhumi of Uttarakhand. We want dharma sansad to be conducted again here, but not the way it did.
Q/ You have said, using a cricket analogy, that the Congress party is not in form.
A/ Yes, but we are the in-form batsman in Uttarakhand and Punjab. And in other election-bound states like Uttar Pradesh, Goa and Manipur, the Congress is just one match away from regaining form.
Q/ Has the Congress experiment of changing the chief minister in Punjab worked?
A/ The decision to change the Punjab chief minister was based on public sentiment and the opinion of MLAs. Captain Amarinder Singh had refused to do anything for the party. He was behaving like a military general who was ready to surrender.
Q/ Has the move been successful?
A/ It has become very successful and has changed the narrative in Indian politics. Punjab has got its first dalit chief minister—a historic event.
Q/ Deserters are causing trouble to the Congress. Does the party have any strategy to prevent further desertions?
A/ [Desertions] do not affect the party’s prospects in the polls. Some people have their own compulsions, while some have political ambitions. We take action accordingly.
Q/ The Aam Aadmi Party can eat into your vote bank. How do you see this?
A/ It is up to Arvind Kejriwal to look into why he is being viewed as a vote-splitter. Why does his party only contest in places where the Congress can be weakened? Is it his ambition to weaken the Congress or defeat the BJP?