By Arun Pratap Singh
Garhwal Post Bureau
DEHRADUN, 25 Jul: BJP State Media In-charge Manveer Singh Chauhan on Saturday alleged that the Congress is trying to mislead the public by presenting only ‘half the truth’ while protesting over the paper leaks and recruitment examinations in Uttarakhand. He said that while the Opposition has every democratic right to stage protests, it should also acknowledge that controversies surrounding recruitment processes in the state had originated during Congress governments.
Chauhan claimed that questions over the transparency of recruitment processes first surfaced during the tenure of the first elected Congress government after the formation of Uttarakhand. He said the 2002 Patwari recruitment and the 2002-03 Sub-Inspector (SI) recruitment had raised serious concerns about the fairness of the selection process. Subsequently, the 2015-16 Sub-Inspector recruitment and the 2016 Village Panchayat Development Officer (VPDO) recruitment also came under scrutiny and became subjects of investigation and controversy. He said that while Congress was protesting against alleged irregularities in recruitments, it should also explain under whose government questions regarding the integrity of the recruitment system had first arisen.
Referring to another controversy, Chauhan said that the appointment of 103 employees in the Uttarakhand Assembly on January 4, 2017, just before the Model Code of Conduct (MCOC) for the Assembly elections came into force, remained the subject of prolonged political and legal controversy. He alleged that the then Speaker of the Assembly, Govind Singh Kunjwal, had faced serious allegations from the Opposition regarding these appointments and that the matter subsequently came under judicial scrutiny and investigation.
He said that although Congress now claims to be concerned about the future of the State’s youth, it should answer whether the 2002 Patwari recruitment controversy had not taken place during its tenure, whether questions had not been raised over the 2002-03 Sub-Inspector recruitment, whether the 2015-16 Sub-Inspector recruitment and the 2016 VPDO recruitment had not come under investigation, and whether the issue of the 103 Assembly appointments in January 2017 had not become a major public controversy across the state.
Contrasting the BJP government’s response, Chauhan said that whenever irregularities in recruitment examinations surfaced during its tenure, they were not suppressed. Instead, he said, the Special Task Force conducted investigations, several arrests were made, influential individuals faced legal action, and even the then Chairman of the Uttarakhand Subordinate Service Selection Commission was sent to jail. He added that the state government had also enacted what it described as one of the country’s toughest anti-cheating laws to ensure stringent action against recruitment mafias.
Chauhan claimed that the youth of Uttarakhand sought a transparent recruitment system rather than political rhetoric. Therefore, if Congress wished to lecture others on morality, it should first answer questions relating to recruitment controversies and disputed appointments during its own tenure.
He further asserted that, unlike what he described as the practice of prolonging investigations, the BJP government had focused on prompt action by ensuring transparent and timely inquiries into every recruitment process whenever doubts arose and sending those found guilty behind bars. Citing the recent paper leak case at Uttarakhand Technical University (UTU), he claimed that the accused had been arrested within 24 hours. He added that the Dhami government had not granted any relief even to influential persons in recruitment scam investigations and had not hesitated to order CBI investigations wherever required. Chauhan said the Congress should first review its own record before levelling allegations against the present government.
