Uttarakhand: Riding High on ‘Hindutva’, Anti-Muslim Plank, BJP Sweeps Civic Polls

Dehradun: With ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) sweeping the civic elections in Uttarakhand, it has become evident that aggressive ‘Hindutva’ is overriding all other issues in the state, termed as the new ‘Hindutva’ laboratory espoused by the Sangh Parivar.

Riding high on the planks of implementing the Uniform Civil Code (UCC), fighting ‘tough’ battles against ‘Love Jehad’, ‘Land Jehad’ and ‘Thook Jehad’ and preserving the demography of ‘Devbhoomi’ in the civic election campaign, BJP leader and Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has again proved that his anti-Muslim rhetoric and aggressive ‘Hindutva’ are paying political dividends in this upper caste Hindu majority state.

Before the civic polls, Dhami had announced a through probe of 'Madrassas' in the state, which successive BJP state governments had announced umpteen times in the past eight years. With this thumping victory, BJP would be now be running a “triple engine” government in the hill state.

The ruling BJP won winning 10 out of the total eleven municipal corporations in the urban centres. The sole independent who won the newly created Srinagar Garhwal municipal corporation is wife of a die-hard RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) worker who has been leading the anti-Muslim campaign in the Garhwal hills for the past sometime but decided to fight independently after denied a party ticket.

Another political lesson that has again been reiterated by the people was that there was no consideration for those who fought for the separate state of Uttarakhand, despite loud public pronouncements and chest-thumping by the political, social and educated class of the state about respecting the statehood agitators.

Two of the leading ‘andolankaris’ (statehood agitators) who fought the civic polls on Congress tickets were defeated, much like the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD), a regional political outfit that spearheaded the statehood agitation but stands political decimated in these polls.

Virender Pokhriyal, the Congress candidate for the mayoral post of the prestigious Dehradun Municipal Corporation lost to Saurab Thapliyal of BJP by a margin of over one lakh votes. Saurab Thapliyal secured 2,41,778 votes while Virender Pokhriyal got only 1,36,483 votes. Interestingly, half of the votes that Congress polled were from the minority Muslim community. Similarly, Lalit Joshi, another ‘andolankari’ who fought on a Congress ticket for the mayoral post of Haldwani lost to Gajraj Singh Bisht of BJP by a margin of more than 3,000 votes.

Interestingly, Narendra Singh Negi, a popular and respected Garhwali singer, gave his blessings to Pokhriyal and Dinesh Chander alias ‘Masterji’, an independent mayoral candidate from Rishikesh. But both lost, again clearly showing that any other sentiment than ‘Hindutva’ did not work in this new laboratory of the Right-wing after Gujarat.     

Meanwhile, Uttarakhand government has become the first state in the country to implement the UCC, as per the agenda of the BJP-Sangh Parivar in the country. Chief Minister Dhami launched an official portal to register marriages and live-in relationships. During the civic election campaign, the main opposition Congress had opposed the cabinet decision on UCC, terming it as violation of the model code of conduct for the polls, but in vain.

Since, Dhami took over as Chief Minister in 2021, there have been consistent anti-Muslim campaigns under his leadership in the shape of ‘Love Jehad’, ‘Land Jehad’, ‘Mazar Jehad” and ‘Thook Jehad’, with the Muslim community being targeted on various pretexts before and after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Several Muslims have even been made to flee from some places in the Garhwal hills.

As part of ‘hate mongering’ against Muslims, during the civic election campaign, Chief Minister Dhami and senior BJP leaders charged the Congress of allowing ‘jehadis’ to settle in ‘Devbhoomi’ Uttarakhand without producing any concrete evidence.

Apart from Dhami, who has been leading the aggressive ‘Hindutva’ agenda throughout the state, the mayoral candidate also resorted to an anti-Muslim rhetoric. Gajraj Singh Bisht from Haldwani, a RSS worker, publicly said that he was fighting elections for protection and propagation of the ‘sanatan’ and does not want  votes from ‘anti-sanatani’  forces. The polarising message is seen as  a reason for a hard working leader like Lalit Joshi losing by a narrow margin.

Similar tactics were adopted by BJP candidate Deepak Bali who fought and won the mayoral post of Kashipur town. He was strident against the minority community in his campaign which was boosted by a visit by Dhami.

Incidentally, BJP secured a narrow win by 17 votes in the newly created post of mayor of Pithoragarh Municipal Corporation. Kalpana Devlal of BJP defeated Monika Mahar, an independent and rebel Congress candidate and a close relative of Pithoragarh Congress legislator Mayukh Singh Mahar, who openly revolted against his party and supported her. Ajay Verma won the mayor seat from Almora. The BJP also won the mayoral seats of Rishikesh, Haridwar, Roorkee, Rudrapur and Kotdwar. The Congress could draw some consolation by winning a few municipal councils in smaller towns.

The divided, fractured, demoralised Uttarakhand Congress has been given another deadly political blow by the BJP-RSS combine. Some political watchers blame senior Congress leaders, who were not seen doing the kind of leg work that Dhami was doing. Uttarakhand Congress leaders appear afraid to take on BJP and the Sangh Parivar on their anti-Muslim vilification campaign, which is getting bolder by the day. Rather, Congress leaders seem to have reconciled to the political realities on the ground and look content to play second fiddle after facing a string of electoral defeats since 2017.

With a disinterested central Congress party leadership looking the other way, the Uttarakhand unit has been leased out to such state leaders who are stumbling from one defeat to another and weakening the party further.

Congress general secretary in-charge Kumari Selja was missing during the civic elections and the earlier three Assembly bypolls held last year. The civic election results are the last wake-up call for the beleaguered Congress to set its house in order ahead of the Assembly polls in 2027.

On the other hand, Dhami is riding high on BJP’s electoral successes in the state, and has emerged as a new generation hero of ‘Hindutva’ politics, and is being projected across the country by his party.

The writer is a freelancer based in Dehradun, Uttarakhand. The views are personal.