Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s visit would promote tourism in Kedarnath aside from helping the State as a whole to leave the horrid memory of 2013’s great deluge behind, the State Congress party said on Saturday.
When asked whether the Congress had played a soft Hindutva card while sending the party leader to Kedarnath when the portals of the holy shrine were opened, the Uttarakhand State Congress president Kishore Upadhyay said a political leader of national stature could hardly go on pilgrimage if such insinuation was attached to it.
Upadhyay said, “No other celebrity could have achieved what Rahul has done-instilling confidence in the locals and the outsiders alike and wiping out the anathema of the past -in one stroke.”
The State Congress chief said that sectarian politics had no place when it came to revival of the State on the matters of tourism and general economic health. “If tourism sector rises up it would augur well for the State as a whole. All other segments of its economy would receive significant fillip. This important aspect should not be lost sight of when the State’s overall development is concerned. We made it a point that no party flag and the like were used during the pilgrimage,” he affirmed.
According to him, Gandhi had appreciated the efforts taken by the State Government in re-building infrastructures along the Char Dham Yatra routes. “He had a direct feel of things as he trekked all his way to reach the shrine from Gauri Kund to Kedarnath,” he added.
He accused BJP-led Central Government for meting out step-brotherly treatment to Uttarakhand. “Earlier, BJP had won seats in the lok Sabha elections riding piggyback on the emotive Ram Janmbhoomi issue. However, in the last Parliamentary election, BJP changed tacks and brought into national focus the name of Ganga as Narendra Modi was being billed as Ganga Ka Putra. So they owe much to the holy river. But what is happening is that they have put the Ganga on the backburner after they swept to power by flaunting Ganga and its cleansing and development.
They cannot care less as far as the development of the state where the river originates is concerned. Crores of rupees are required to build infrastructure like roads, bridges and others across Uttarakhand. We hope they would rise to the occasion and turn generous to the state,” he said.
Upadhyay further said that the Chief Minister and he himself had invited Gandhi to come to Kedarnath. “But it was his decision to embark on the pilgrimage,” he said, adding that it was not his maiden pilgrimage to the celebrated shrine. “He had studied in Dehradun,” he said. The party would invite Gandhi again to visit Kedarnath and Badrinath the next year, he said.