New Delhi: Pushkar Singh Dhami, who’s the youngest and the first-time chief minister of Uttarakhand, has emerged as a ‘silent poster boy’ of Hindutva, a time period that denotes the ideology of Hindu nationalism. He has adopted the insurance policies and legislations that mirror the RSS-BJP’s imaginative and prescient of politics, that are much like these of different hardline Hindutva leaders corresponding to Yogi Adityanath and Himanta Biswa Sarma.
Dhami, who began his political profession as a member of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the scholar wing of the BJP, has additionally served as an adviser to former chief minister Bhagat Singh Koshiyari, who is understood for his pro-Hindutva views. He has additionally been the state president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, the youth wing of the BJP, the place he advocated for reserving 70% of alternatives for the native youth within the industries of the state.
Dhami, who misplaced his seat within the 2022 meeting elections from Khatima constituency, was re-elected because the chief minister by the BJP MLAs. He later gained the Champawat bypoll by an enormous margin of over 55,000 votes. He is the one chief minister of the state to imagine a second consecutive time period since its creation in 2000.
UCC Bill: A Historic Move Or Divisive Agenda?
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has made historical past by introducing the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) invoice within the state meeting on Tuesday, 6 February, amid chants of “Jai Sri Ram” and “Vande Mataram”. The invoice, if handed, would make Uttarakhand the primary state in India to implement the UCC, a long-standing demand of the BJP and the RSS.
The UCC is a proposed legislation that will change the non-public legal guidelines of various non secular communities with a typical algorithm governing marriage, divorce, inheritance, adoption, and different issues. The BJP claims that the UCC would guarantee gender justice and nationwide integration, whereas the opposition events and a few minority teams argue that it could violate the constitutional proper to freedom of faith and cultural range.
The UCC invoice is likely one of the key guarantees of the BJP in its manifesto for the 2022 state meeting elections, that are anticipated to be held in March. The BJP hopes that the invoice would consolidate its core Hindu vote base and counter the anti-incumbency issue. The invoice would additionally set an instance for different BJP-ruled states corresponding to Gujarat and Assam, the place comparable proposals have been mooted.
War Against ‘Love Jihad’, ‘Land Jihad’
Another challenge that has introduced Dhami to the limelight is his stance on ‘love jihad’ and ‘land jihad’, two phrases utilized by some Hindu teams to allege that Muslim males are changing Hindu ladies to Islam by means of marriage and that Muslim communities are occupying authorities lands illegally.
Dhami, who turned the chief minister in July 2021 after the resignation of Tirath Singh Rawat, has adopted the footsteps of his Uttar Pradesh counterpart Yogi Adityanath, who has been vocal about his opposition to ‘love jihad’ and has enacted a legislation to curb it. The legislation, which prohibits conversion for the sake of marriage, has been challenged within the courts for violating the basic rights of people.
Dhami has additionally supported the actions of vigilante teams who declare to forestall ‘love jihad’ by harassing and attacking interfaith {couples}. He has stated that the state wants a stricter anti-conversion legislation as a result of Uttarakhand is “the land of the gods” and acts like non secular conversion are “harmful to us”. In 2021, the Uttarakhand meeting handed a legislation that elevated the utmost punishment for ‘forced’ conversions from 5 to 10 years.
Dhami has additionally launched an anti-encroachment drive within the state, which he claims is aimed toward releasing 5,000 acres of land from ‘land jihad’. He has accused a selected group (referring to Muslims) of illegally occupying land and constructing constructions within the border areas of the state. As a part of the drive, the Dhami authorities has demolished round 500 ‘mazars’ (tomb shrines) and 50 temples, sparking protests from the affected communities.
