Dehradun: The Congress is accusing the BJP of looking to appropriate the political legacy of former chief minister N.D. Tiwari, after the state government awarded its first Uttarakhand Gaurav award to the late leader early this week.
Tiwari was among five people, including author Ruskin Bond, announced for the ‘Uttarakhand Gaurav Samman’ by the Pushkar Singh Dhami government Monday.
As soon as the award was announced, former chief minister and Congress stalwart, Harish Rawat missed no time in calling upon the late leaders’ family members at his village of Padampuri in Nainital. Rawat met Tiwari’s brother Durga Prasad Tiwari, his family and other villagers, and assured them that the Congress will do all it can for their development if voted back to power in 2022.
Speaking to ThePrint, Rawat said the BJP was looking to take political mileage from the award, which he added was no more than a similar decoration announced by his government in 2016.
“The Congress government had instituted the ‘Uttarakhand Ratna’ award in 2016 and former CM N.D. Tiwari was honoured with it,” Rawat said. “The present BJP government, however, has derecognised that award and announced to honour the late CM with this one posthumously. BJP is playing politics in the name of N.D. Tiwari who lived and died for the Congress. He will always be remembered as a Congressman and no one can take that away.”
Rawat, though, was a known political rival of Tiwari in the Uttarakhand Congress.
The BJP is claiming that its award is a recognition of Tiwari’s status in Uttarakhand, and that the Congress had disowned the late leader’s legacy as it had “conspired and tarnished his image and character in the latter phase of his life”.
“Pandit Narayan Dutt Tiwari was the most respected leader of Uttarakhand but he was always let down by the Congress leadership through Harish Rawat as their tool. Tiwari was persistently opposed by Rawat for complete five years even when he headed the first elected government of Uttarakhand in 2002,” state BJP spokesperson Shadab Shams told ThePrint.
“He later had to endure character assassination while he was governor of Andhra Pradesh. What’s wrong if the BJP government accorded him his due recognition. He headed the first elected government of the state and provided a comprehensive roadmap for development of Uttarakhand. Congress has no reason to speak on it.”
Shams stressed that the Congress sidelined Tiwari in his later years.
The BJP has followed up the award with more honours for Tiwari. Addressing a function at Haldwani on 10 November, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami announced to rename the Pantnagar State Infrastructure and Industrial Development Corporation Park in Udham Singh Nagar district after the former CM. Dhami also declared to name a road going towards Tiwari’s maternal grandparents’ village of Baluti in Nainital district after him.
A Congress stalwart, Tiwari had three terms as chief minister of undivided Uttar Pradesh, and one stint at the helm in Uttarakhand, which began in 2002. He was a union minister twice in the late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s cabinet between 1986 and 1988.
The prominent Brahmin leader also served as governor of Andhra Pradesh from 2007 to 2009, but had to quit after being embroiled in an alleged sex tape controversy with three women.
Tiwari had, however, met Home Minister Amit Shah, ahead of assembly elections in the state in 2017, and offered his support to the BJP.
He passed away at the age of 93 on 18 October, also his birthday, in 2018.
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‘Tiwari’s recognition too late, his stature much higher than reward’
The Congress insists that it is the natural heir to Tiwari’s political legacy.
“The Congress doesn’t have to make an effort to inherit the legacy of our late leader N.D. Tiwari. We are natural inheritors of his legacy. He was the three-time Congress chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and one time in Uttarakhand besides being appointed as Andhra Pradesh governor,” Uttarakhand Congress spokesperson Grima Dasauni said.
“Tiwari shaped the visions of development in Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh as a Congress leader. People of Uttarakhand know well the pace of industrial development in the state during his tenure,” Dasauni added. “His stature is larger than the recognition announced to him by the BJP government. Even that has come too late.”
PCC general secretary Prithvi Pal Singh Chauhan said such is Tiwari’s stature, that the government had no option but to include him in the list.
“The BJP’s efforts to project that it has done something great for the late Congress leader will not have any political impact in the state,” Chauhan said. “The Dhami government could not have escaped N.D. Tiwari’s name while announcing the highest award of the state. They were duty bound to give the late leader his due.”
Another BJP spokesperson Manbir Singh Chauhan said the Congress is sulking ever since the government announced the award on the eve of state’s raising day on 9 November.
“The Congress party is rattled by the Dhami government announcing the state’s highest award to former CM N.D. Tiwari and four others,” Singh said. “Else why did Harish Rawat rush to the village of the late leader the very next day and meet his family members and villagers?”
BJP eyeing Brahmin vote in UP & Uttarakhand
Although not willing to speak on record, BJP leaders say that the recognition for N.D. Tiwari will not only help it in Uttarakhand, but also in Uttar Pradesh.
“There is a general perception that Brahmins in UP are angry with the BJP in UP. N.D. Tiwari had high regard in both the states within the community and otherwise as well. Although bestowing Uttarakhand Gaurav Samman may not offer any big political mileage, the party has been able to send a message across the two states,” admitted a senior Uttarakhand BJP MLA unwilling to be named.
Uttarakhand is also known for its Thakur-Brahmin politics with 29 assembly constituencies falling in N.D. Tiwari’s home region of Kumaon and the remaining 41 in Garhwal.
In the 2017 assembly polls, the BJP won 57 seats, of which 23 were in Kumaon and 34 in Garhwal. The Congress won 11 seats while two went to the Independents.
Political opinion-makers here say the BJP cannot afford to antagonise Brahmins in Uttarakhand in view of protests against Devasthanam Management Board by priests, and the farmers’ agitation in the plains of Kumaon.
“Presently, it doesn’t seem that ongoing protests by the Char Dham priests have impacted Brahmins voters in general. But the BJP has apparently taken a preventive measure to help it in the future if the Dhami government fails to win the confidence of the priests demanding quashing of the Devasthanam Board,” said Dehradun-based political commentator Jai Singh Rawat.
(Edited by Arun Prashanth)
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