The Harish Rawat-led Uttarakhand Government, being stuck by myriad disagreeable matters haunting it throughout 2015 must turn over a new leaf in the coming year 2016 to make the people bury the past and to look at it expectantly for a positive turnaround.
Many matters reflecting the Government in poor light have been dogging it since the year 2015 was ushered in.
The list is long. Some are like the controversial Fl-2, sting operation involving the CM's secretary, reappointment of Rakesh Sharma as Chief Secretary for three months and later being forced to appoint him as the Chief Principal Secretary (CPS) following rejection from the Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT), the infamous lBSAA affair involving a woman staying there masquerading as an IAS probationer for around six months, the disaster scam to the tune of whopping sums allegedly embezzled in the name of relief for the deluge-affected, clamour over smart city, eliminating 150-year-old tea plantation, inking MoU with a Chinese company over the smart city project despite its vicinity to premier military establishments and the last, though not the least, the searing heat over the unseemly developments involving the State Government-run shelter home for the women in distress, Nari Niketan.
Another thing must be mentioned that is construed as a deadly blow to the State Government coming at the fag end of the passing year from the High Court over the Fl-2 policy. Though the State Government has been putting up a brave face, saying that Fl-2 is meant to save the liquor trade from the clutches of the infamous liquor mafias and the HC order on the distribution of IMFl was no indictment of its policy, the ruling is deemed to be a roundabout rejection of the much-touted Fl-2.
Chief Minister Rawat had passed through bad patches in the course of his rather tempestuous tenure that started in February 2014, the worst being the massive drubbing during the 2014 general election given by the people who chose to join the development bandwagon led by Narendra Modi. The defeat in the Haridwar lok Sabha seat from which he had been elected made him and the party nurse its wounds for a long enough time.
However, he is lucky on one count and that is the disarray the State BJP is in.
Ridden with factions, implacably inimical to one another, the saffron party in the State is even finding it difficult to evolve a consensus on the next State party president.
By way of achievements, he has succeeded in raising a debate over the question of Gairsain being made the Capital of the State, ending the reign of Dehradun, now enjoying the status of interim Capital. Besides, he is instrumental in Assembly sessions and Cabinet meetings being held outside Dehradun for a number of times, a development that is in step with the dream that begot Uttarakhand as a State. However, on the flip side, things are simmering in the State Congress with a majority of the satraps, most of them enjoying Cabinet Minister's status, opposing the shift of the Capital tooth and nail.
Dissidence is another problem that left the Chief Minister pensive for a greater part of 2015 with his bête noir Vijay Bahuguna breathing down his neck. Now, a redoubtable Cabinet Minister being added to the tentative list of the detractors, it is certain that Chief Minister would have to weather several storms to rein in the detractors, walking rather tightrope while leading the party to the grand battle 2017 approaching nearer. "The year 2016 is the year that he must win at any cost to keep hopes of return alive. In case he loses, it means the end of the eventful political career of the charismatic, hard-working and astute leader," says an observer.
