Harak’s utterances point towards murmurs of dissent

SMA Kazmi

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, May 21 

The remarks by Forest Minister and maverick leader Harak Singh Rawat praising his one time bitter political foes former Chief Ministers Harish Rawat and Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank are seen as the beginning of the dissent in the state BJP government led by Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat.

Harak, who rebelled along with former Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna and eight other Congress legislators against Harish Rawat in March 2016 to join the BJP, is now looks uncomfortable in the new dispensation. Although, after getting re-elected in the 2017 Assembly polls from Kotdwar in Pauri Garhwal district, Harak  was given a Cabinet berth with important portfolio of Forest Ministry.

However, it was a known fact that in the first three months of the BJP government not many BJP workers and leaders are happy with the performance of their state government. Many of the senior ministers particularly those who jumped from the Congress are reportedly unhappy. It was believed that Harak  was trying to articulate the feeling of the majority of party leaders who were uncomfortable with the performance of the state government but lack courage to call a spade a spade.

Interestingly, Harak, who is known for being involved in umpteem controversies of all hues since the inception of the state in November 2000 is a politician who can take risk and thrive. He had been the youngest minister in Uttar Pradesh as a BJP leader and travelled to Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) before joining Congress before the state came into being in November 2000.

Harak again become a minister in the ND Tewari-led first elected government of the state but had to quit following his alleged involvement in unwed mother scandal. He again got elected in 2007 to become the Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly. He was again forced to shift his Assembly in 2012 polls but won to become a minister in the Congress-led ministry.

Now in BJP, Harak by praising two previous chief ministers gave a hint that the performance of the present BJP government was not up to the mark and he would try to be the rallying point of dissidents in the future. Being an ambitious leader, he has made his first move in the BJP. It would be seen how BJP leadership would take his utterances.