Dhami Attacks Cong For Using General Rawat's Cut-Outs At Rallies

Updated on: 22 December 2021 12:10 pm

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami hit out at the Congress on Tuesday for calling General Bipin Rawat a "streetside hooligan" when he was alive and using his cut-outs at its rallies now for electoral gains.

"How can we forget that the party that put up General Rawat's big cut-outs at its rally in Dehradun had called him a streetside hooligan when he was alive? The party should be ashamed of itself," Dhami said addressing a programme organised by the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), the youth wing of the ruling BJP, at Shrinagar in Pauri district.

The country's first Chief of Defence Staff General Rawat, who was killed along with his wife and 12 others in a tragic helicopter crash in Tamil Nadu recently, was originally from a village in Pauri district. Dhami said all the political parties, which were not seen for four-and-a-half years, have become visible with elections round the corner. "They are back just for votes. They have nothing to do with the people of the state. They just want to quench their thirst for power. As far as youngsters are concerned, they have only been misled by these parties in the past," he said.

Targeting Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for promising to give an unemployment allowance to youngsters who do not have jobs if voted to power in Uttarakhand, Dhami said it was meant only to trap them. Without naming the Congress, he said a similar ploy to woo young voters was adopted by the party in 2017, when it distributed job guarantee cards among youngsters in all the Assembly constituencies of the state but nothing came of it.

The chief minister said the Congress may say whatever it wants to lure the voters but "people cannot forget that a man who shouted anti-India slogans is now in the party. People cannot forget that a leader of the party recently compared Hindus with ISIS". Claiming that real steps for the development of Uttarakhand are being taken by the double-engine government, Dhami said all departments have been asked to prepare a roadmap for the state's progress over the next 10 years. The Uttarakhand Assembly polls are due early next year.

-With PTI Inputs