Chief Minister Harish Rawat, though seemingly upset with what has been befalling the State since March 18, used the second day of the special Vidhan Sabha session in full to showcase his achievements to get political mileage with the Assembly election approaching fast. He sought to humour the Opposition whose members were sporting black badges on their sleeves while appealing to them through the media to come and join the important discussions and debates being held on important matters like land consolidation for the hilly areas. However, intriguingly, he did not bother to talk to the Opposition while he was going to his office after the adjournment of the House till 2 pm at 11.50 am on Friday.
As the session resumed, the Chief Minister raised the issue of BJP leader Dayashankar Singh, who is in the eye of a storm for hurling abuse on the character of the BSP supremo Mayawati, without naming him, and said such vulgar utterances need to be condemned in the harshest terms.
The BSP leader, Haridas, participated in the debate, condemning the BJP leader for mouthing such filthy abuses. However, it was clear that the Chief Minister was out to hijack the Dalit agenda right from the BSP by posing as a sincere champion of the cause of the Dalits through commiseration with the Dalit leader, observers say.
However, the Chief Minister did not stop at showing empathy for the Dalit. He empathised with the cause of the the upper castes too. He brought a resolution, suggesting 10 percent reservation on the basis of economic backwardness for the upper castes.
Citing an instance of a child working hard to repay the loan amount taken by his parents, CM said he was moved by the report and asked the officers to locate the child and provide him with the amount to enable him to get back to his normal life of studies. "This is just an instance I came across. They are many such students struggling hard against daunting adversities. We would help them as much as possible," Chief Minister said.
He also did not forget to mention the decision of providing 10 percent horizontal reservation for the Rajya Aandolankaris. "Things are now pending before the Governor. He also assured that his Government is all set to conduct special recruitment drive to fill the backlogs of the specially-abled people," Rawat said.