E-Paper
AAP says Char Dham Board will be scrapped if party assumes power in Uttarakhand
This is another major announcement by the party after it said it will provide free electricity in the hill state.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has announced that it will scrap Char Dham Devasthanam Management Board if it comes to power in Uttarakhand in the 2022 assembly polls.
Colonel (retd) Ajay Kothiyal, chief ministerial candidate of AAP in the state, said if their party comes to power, it will scrap the Char Dham board in line with the aspirations of the agitating priests.
“For centuries, priests of each of these shrines have developed unique relationships with the pilgrims. Against this backdrop, the government cannot just bring a board that uses the same barometer for all Char Dham shrines. You have to respect their unique traditions and the way they have been managing these shrines for centuries,” he said.
This is another major announcement by the party after it said it will provide free electricity in the hill state and will make Uttarakhand the spiritual capital for Hindus across the world.
The priest community is not happy with the formation of the board and the BJP government taking over the management of these shrines which they had been managing for centuries. The agitating priests have even warned that if the decision on scrapping the Board is not taken by September 1, a large number of people from the priest and Brahmin community will go for a mass resignation from the BJP.
On August 17, one of the two main announcements party chief and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal made in Dehradun was that AAP will make Uttarakhand the spiritual capital for the Hindus across the world.
In April this year, the then chief minister Tirath Singh Rawat had announced that the state government will review the formation of the Char Dham Devasthanam Board. But when Pushkar Singh Dhami took over the reins of the state, he announced the formation of a high-powered committee that will talk with all stakeholders, following which a decision will be taken on the status of the Char Dham Board. The agitating priests are not happy with this.
Santosh Trivedi, a priest from Kedarnath shrine and vice president of Akhil Bharatiya Teerath Purohit Yuva Mahasabha, who also wrote a letter with his blood earlier this month to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, demanding to scrap the Char Dham Devasthanam Board, questioned why should government manage the shrines when traditionally the priests have been doing so efficiently for centuries. “The government keeps talking that it will not interfere with our rights. But they never talk about which rights. We want to extend our gratitude to AAP for coming out in support and announcing that it will scrap the board if it comes to power,” he said.
Madan Kaushik, state BJP president said that the BJP government has already stayed the functioning of the board and formed an empowered committee that will hold talks with the priests and other stakeholders and resolve the issue.
Devendra Bhasin, state BJP vice president said everybody knows that AAP will not come into power in the state. “They are making these announcements to mislead the people here. The BJP government is serious about this issue and that is why a high empowered committee has been formed which is talking to all stakeholders to come out with a solution,” he said.
Political analyst Professor SS Semwal, who teaches political science at Garhwal University, said, AAP toeing the Hindutva line won’t make much difference in the elections as people here want jobs and upliftment of the local economy. “Voters won’t decide on whether AAP has supported priests or not. They are worried about unemployment, migration, poor healthcare and so on. Such announcements are more about optics right now,” he said.
