Express News Service
DEHRADUN: When Tirath Singh Rawat tendered his resignation to the Governor Friday late night at around 11.15 pm, he ended up with the dubious distinction of being the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand for the shortest duration – 115 days.
Before Rawat, the record for the shortest tenure as Uttarakhand CM was with Bhagat Singh Koshyari who was the CM for 122 days.
Rawat’s time in office was marred by some of the biggest controversies in the history of Uttarakhand since it was carved out of erstwhile Uttar Pradesh in November 2000.
There was the holding of the Mahakumbh despite many experts warning it could turn into a Covid ‘Super Spreader’, his questioning of women who wore ‘ripped jeans’ and then his observation that those who had produced fewer children should not feel jealous if others got more ration from the government.
Jay Singh Rawat, a political commentator based in Dehradun, says, “His actions as well as speeches caused huge uproar nationwide including the ripped jeans comments. Kumbh becoming a super-spreader event made things worse as it harmed the reputation of India internationally. Later, the fake-testing scam of the Kumbh acted as a last nail in his coffin. Could it have been any worse?”
The ripped jeans comment came in March 2021, barely a month after he became the CM. While speaking at a workshop to prevent substance abuse, Rawat said that ripped jeans pave the way for ‘societal breakdown’ and were a result of the bad example parents set for children, which also leads to substance abuse.
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Narrating an incident that occurred while he was travelling on a flight, he told the audience that he saw a woman with ‘gum boots’ and ‘ripped jeans’ sitting beside him. He further said that the woman had her two children travelling with her.
“I asked her what does she do. She told me that she runs an NGO while her husband is a professor at JNU (Jawaharlal Nehru University). I thought she runs an NGO, husband is a professor at JNU, (yet) she goes into society like this. Where are her sanskars (values)?,” the CM asked.
He then went on to recall how in his childhood torn clothes were not considered good and normal and how kids used to get them repaired whenever they were torn. He went on to say, “Where is this (wearing of ripped jeans) originating from, if not at home? What is the fault of teachers or schools? Where am I taking my son, showing his knees and in torn jeans? Girls are no less. Is this good? All of this, in an attempt to match the mad race of westernisation. While the western world follows us doing yoga and covering their body properly, we run towards nudity.”
If that observation was targeted at the relatively well-off sections of society, there was soon to be another that would have rubbed many poor people the wrong way.
It came later in the same month, while he was addressing an audience in Nainital’s Ramnagar.
Rawat was talking about the difference in rations being doled out to different families when he said, “Now brother, who is to blame for this? He (the person who got more rations) produced 20 (children) and you produced only two. So he gets a quintal of ration. When there was time, you produced only two why not 20? Now, why the jealousy?
He said that the government provided 5kg per person and those with 20 got a quintal (100 kgs) of ration during pandemic times.
“Every house was provided with 5kgs of ration per unit (person). Those with 10 got 50 kgs, those with 20 got a quintal of ration and those with two got 10kgs. People started a ‘store’ out of it and got themselves a buyer. The rice was so good that no one has got such quality in even normal days, leave aside pandemic times. But then they started to get jealous of each other that I got only 10 kgs for two and another person got a quintal for 20,” Rawat said.
Then there was the Mahakumbh.
One of the first decisions by Rawat on the day he was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand was to shower flowers on devotees attending the Haridwar Mahakumbh.
Immediately after starting the ceremony, Rawat in his first meeting also instructed the officials to make the Kumbh ‘Divya Bhavya’.
Rawat himself was seen attending the ‘Shahi Snan’ on the occasion of Mahashivaratri within a week of becoming the CM.
In the process, he withdrew the restrictions imposed by his predecessor Trivendra Singh Rawat who had said that he wanted the Kumbh to be ‘symbolic’ due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
Later, the situation got out of hand and active cases in Uttarakhand surged by over 2600% from March 31 to April 30, 2021.
On April 17, Prime Minister Narendra Modi through a tweet urged the Kumbh be curtailed and kept prateekatmak (symbolic), but the number of active cases had already reached 15386 registering a more than 800% increase from March 31.
Towards the end of Rawat’s tenure came the controversy triggered by a preliminary inquiry into Covid-19 testing during the Kumbh that revealed there had been fake testing, which led to an uproar and an FIR being registered.
A special investigation team was also constituted to probe the alleged scam. The issue reached the Uttarakhand High Court and at present is subjudice while the interrogation of officials of the mela administration goes on.
“His legacy will be of controversies, Kumbh becoming super spreader and fake testing. His short tenure was not easy for him but more difficult for the people. History won’t be kind to him,” noted Yogesh Kumar, another political analyst in Dehradun.
