Former Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, who knows how to sail against the tide, categorically said that had his party given him a free hand, the BJP would have formed the Government after the Assembly election in 2012. Sunil Kumar tries to know Dr Nishank’s plan for the forthcoming parliamentary poll. Following are the Excerpts…
Being a school teacher you know how to evaluate students’ copy so how do you rate incumbent Vijay Bahuguana-led Congress government in UttarakhandIJ
As far as rating is concerned, the people have already rated the government. There is general perception among the masses that the State government is invisible. I don’t want to rate incumbent Vijay Bahuguna-led state government. Being an ex Chief Minister of Uttarakhand I know how to execute the public welfare schemes on ground. Unfortunately, no government is visible for the last 14 months. Instead of carrying out development, they constituted KR Bhati commission as part of political vendetta.
Do you agree with the finding of Bhati Commission which has indicated that appointment of chairman of Uttarakhand Seeds and Tarai Development Corporation (USTDC) was illegal since the government itself did not follow the norms for the appointment of chairmanIJ
Through Bhati Commission, which has indicated appointment of chairman was illegal, The Congress-led State government tried to grill me because I had appointed Hemant Dwivedi as chairman of USTDC. As per the Bhati commission, Dwivedi made dent of Rs 3 crore in USTDC by misusing power of chairman. Even sitting Congress MlA Dr Shailendra Mohan Singhal staged a sit on at the entrance of vidhan Sabha. In the country, This would be first commission whose chairman left the state after submitting his findings. It seems remote control of Bhati commission was with someone else. Although state Agriculture Minister Harak Singh Rawat has adopted similar procedure while occupying the post of USTDC chairman, Bhati commission finds Hemant Dwivedi appointment as illegal.
As far as Harak’s appointment is concerned, his one was completely illegal. He says that being a cabinet minister he can become chairman of USTDC. Mockery of the statement is that Principal Secretary appointed cabinet minister Harak Singh Rawat as chairman of USTDC. It seems officers kept minister Rawat in dark, or else he would have become chairman by following the official norms. Irony of the story is that Bhati commission said appointment of Dwivedi was illegal and also made harsh comment against then chief secretary Subhash kumar. Cabinet minister Rawat followed similar procedure and chief minister appointed Subhash Kumar as chief secretary of Uttarakhand.
Do you agree that Cabinet minister Harak Singh Rawat is your friend and now you are making allegation against him to settle down political scoresIJ
This is true that Harak Singh Rawat is senior to me in politics. State government is making all effort to make him a scapegoat.
This is an open secret in Uttarakhand that state unit BJP has three factions: namely EX CM Maj Gen Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri, Ex CM & Rajya Sabha MP Bhagat Singh Koshiyari and Ex-CM & Doiwala MlA Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank. Will three factions come together during forthcoming General electionIJ
First I would like to make it clear here that I don’t believe in factionalism. I always go by the party better prospects. For instance, when I was made chief minister of Uttarakhand, I made Trivendra Singh Rawat, Prakash Pant and Vijaya Berthwal cabinet minister. During election of Uttarakhand BJP president, instead of doing lobbying for anyone, I had maintained complete silence. In a nutshell, you can say that I always support right candidate.
Don’t you think that BJP has sidelined you because in September 2011 whey the party replaced you with Maj Gen BC Khanduri and later appointed as Vice President. Even the party didn’t give you any important responsibility in the national BJP teamIJ
I am totally disagree with you because it is the BJP that made me Chief Minister of Uttarakhand. Now they do deliberation whenever they take any decision on Uttarakhand. I would like to mention that I am party worker and I always tried to meet party expectation whenever they assign me any responsibility.
There is hearsay that Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank is grooming Haridwar lok Sabha constituency so Union cabinet Minister Harish Rawat had to open Public relation office in Dehradun district because three vidhan Sabha constituencies namely Dharampur, Doiwala and Rishikesh fall under Haridwar lok Sabha constituency. Is it true that you would contest general election against Union Cabinet Minister Rawat from HaridwarIJ
It is the people who feel that I should contest election from Haridwar. For instance, when I went to attend a wedding ceremony of Kalim Ansari’s son in Haridwar then Muslim community friends welcome me from bottom of their heart. Coincidentally, State Governor Dr Aziz Qureshi was also present there. Seeing people love, he made a positive comment on it. Although I am not interested, if party wants then I would have no option.
Do you think Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi should lead the nationIJ
Yes. He made the BJP pride by carrying out development in Gujarat. Even the Congress has adopted his development model, which he executed in Gujarat. He is most capable candidate.
How do you take Naxal attack in Chhatisgarh. Don’t you think it was totally failure of Raman Singh GovernmentIJ
It was complete failure of the Congress-led UPA Government because during Chief Minister conference on internal security Chhatisgarh CM Raman Singh kept raising the issue and had warned major incident may happen in future but they did not bother lend their ear. It is UPA who abolished TADA. Instead of conducting operation against the Naxal, they prefer to have round table talk. Now time has come to take effective action against the Naxal.
How would BJP do in upcoming general electionIJ
We are in win-win situation. We have begun this by winning Tehri lok Sabha by poll by defeating sitting chief minister Vijay Bahuguna’s son Saket Bahuguna. Now BJP would win all five seats of Uttarakhand in upcoming general election.