Amit Shah says BJP will win Uttarakhand again as he unveils ₹1,475 crore projects in Dehradun

Union Home Minister Amit Shah inaugurated and laid foundation stones for projects worth ₹1,475.31 crore at Dehradun’s Parade Ground on Friday, at a BJP rally held on Uttarakhand’s foundation day that also drew protests across the city.

Shah was received at Jolly Grant Airport around noon and reached the Parade Ground stage shortly after 12:15 pm, where Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami presented him with Ganga water ahead of the coming Kumbh. Dhami put the value of the projects at ₹1,475.31 crore and said they marked 26 years of the state. A list of the individual projects has not been released.

The rally is part of the BJP’s “Loktantra Bachao, Arajakta Hatao” (Save Democracy, Remove Anarchy) campaign, which the party built as an answer to the opposition’s campaign against the Election Commission. Uttarakhand BJP leaders Anil Baluni, Ajay Bhatt and Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank were on the stage, along with party office-bearer Bansuri Swaraj.

What Shah said

Shah began speaking at about 12:48 pm with a “Ram Ram” greeting to the crowd. He said the message should reach “Rahul baba” that the BJP will form the government in Uttarakhand again, and led the crowd in “Jai Shri Ram” slogans.

He credited former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee with creating Uttarakhand and paid tribute to the statehood agitators, including those at Rampur Tiraha, accusing the Congress and the Samajwadi Party of atrocities on the movement’s young people. He said a developed Uttarakhand was the first stop on the journey to a developed India, that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was now polishing the state Vajpayee had made, and that it should be among the most developed states by 2047. He also remembered the folk heroes Tilu Rauteli and Madho Singh Bhandari.

Dhami goes after Congress

Speaking before Shah, Dhami said his government was working to build the Uttarakhand the statehood activists had hoped for. He congratulated the state police on receiving the President’s Police Colour, which Shah is due to present at the Police Line later in the day, and said the Centre’s decisions on the three new criminal laws and Article 370 had strengthened national unity.

Dhami then turned to the case that has dogged his government. He said the state had delivered justice in the Ankita Bhandari murder case, where the convicts were sentenced to life imprisonment, and accused Congress of spreading false information about it. He asked why Congress stayed silent on the Jenny case and Delhi’s tandoor murder case.

He also mocked Rahul Gandhi’s recent visit to the state, calling it an “echo of lies” rather than an “echo of students”, and pointed to the state’s anti-cheating law and the replacement of the Madrasa Board with a Minority Development Authority.

Cabinet minister Satpal Maharaj said the day was also for remembering the sacrifices of the statehood movement at Khatima, Mussoorie and Rampur Tiraha, and that the government’s aim was to stop migration and create jobs. He attacked Congress over past remarks about General Bipin Rawat and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval. Cabinet minister Dhan Singh Rawat said Uttarakhand had become the country’s fifth fully literate state.

Protests outside

The visit was shadowed by protests over the Ankita Bhandari case. Black ink was thrown on a hoarding welcoming Shah, with slogans demanding justice for her. Workers of the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal broke through police barricades as they moved towards the Parade Ground, and police detained Suraj Seva Dal workers at Kishan Nagar Chowk before releasing them some distance away.

Earlier in the morning, police stopped Congress workers led by Parwadun district president Mohit Uniyal on the Jolly Grant road as they marched towards the airport, and put them on a bus. The party alleged that Ankita Bhandari’s parents had been picked up by police at Rajghat in Delhi, and Uniyal criticised road closures and the shutting of firecracker shops on Dhanteras.

What comes next

After the rally, Shah is to present the President’s Police Colour to Uttarakhand Police at the Police Line in the Racecourse area. A meeting of the state BJP’s core committee that had been planned for the visit has been postponed.