By ARUN PRATAP SINGH
DEHRADUN, 28 Sep: Cabinet Minister Harak Singh Rawat feels that there is nothing wrong in trying to derive political mileage from the good work done by the governments at the Centre and the State. He was commenting on the recent trend of Union Ministers and BJP central leaders touring Uttarakhand, one after the other. Speaking to Garhwal Post in this regard, Rawat said that due to special focus of the Union Government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Uttarakhand, the state had benefitted much in the past six or seven years. The road network had improved tremendously, health infrastructure was also improving and a large number of central schemes were proving beneficial to the people of the state. He added that, while the first survey of rail line in the hills was done by the British, and the politicians across the political spectrum spoke about the dream of train journeys in the hills, none of them actually believed that train service in the hills could actually begin in their lifetime. However, PM Modi made that possible. “If the Centre has done a lot of good for the state and now the elections are approaching, why should the BJP leaders not try to derive political mileage from the good work of the government?,” he asked. He quickly added that he did not mean that Modi, Rajnath Singh or Amit Shah were coming to Uttarakhand in the coming days for political reasons, but just felt that there would be nothing wrong even if they had chosen to do so. He said that politics is not akin to sainthood. Now that the elections are approaching in the state, ever more politicians from every political party would be coming to Uttarakhand for the election campaign and that was fair. Commenting on the emotional pitch that is being sought to be used by veteran Congress leader Harish Rawat, claiming he comes from a poor financial background, Harak Singh added that most politicians in the state from all political parties are from poor families, including him. Even PM Modi as a child used to help his father sell tea at a railway station. Citing the recent Modi speech at the UN General Assembly, Rawat added that this was the beauty and strength of democracy in India, that a tea vender could become the Prime Minister and lead the nation. Rawat denied speculation regarding his rift with the party. That was media speculation and nothing else, he declared.
