Generously heaping praise on Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami for completing three years of his second term in office, Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently described him as hardworking and dubbed his tenure as one of “big achievements”. Though Modi in his March 29 congratulatory note emphasised the “good governance and development” of Uttarakhand under Dhami, the BJP government’s decisions since returning to power in 2022 indicate that the BJP’s hold on power is down to aggressively pushing its Hindutva agenda. In 2022, in the first Cabinet meeting after returning to power, Dhami set up a drafting committee headed by retired Supreme Court judge Ranjana Desai to oversee the Uniform Civil Code (UCC). In February 2024, the Uniform Civil Code Bill, 2024, was passed in the Assembly and the Act was notified a month later, making Uttarakhand the first state in the country to implement UCC. The move earned Dhami praise from the BJP brass, with Union Home Minister Amit Shah saying in the Rajya Sabha that BJP-ruled states would follow Uttarakhand in implementing the code. More recently, the state government has taken contentious decisions such as renaming 15 places bearing “Muslim names” after Hindu gods and leaders, directing the General Administration Department (GAD) to have dates according to the Hindu calendar on all government notifications and inauguration planks, ordering a probe on the funding of madrasas, and cracking down on “illegal madrasas and mazaars”. A BJP leader from Uttarakhand defended the government’s decisions, claiming Dhami was only “honouring the sentiments” of most people in the state. “When people meet the CM, they express concern about demographic changes in the hills and possible consequences. These actions are to prevent any untoward happenings in the future,” the leader added. According to the 2011 Census, Hindus make up 82.97% of Uttarakhand’s population while Muslims, who make up 13.94%, are largely confined to districts such as Udham Singh Nagar, Nainital, Haridwar and Dehradun in the plains. In January, Dhami ordered a verification of madrasas, following which various district administrations started surveying them to ascertain various aspects of their functioning, including their sources of funds. Over the past month, action has been taken against 135 madrasas not registered either with the state education department or the madrasa board. According to officials, 64 madrasas have been sealed in Udham Singh Nagar, while 44 and 26 have been shut down in Dehradun and Haridwar, respectively. Two madrasas have been sealed in Pauri Garhwal. State government figures peg the number of registered madrasas at 450 while officials claim there are 500 unregistered ones. Last week, Dhami told a news channel that his government was only “correcting irregularities”. “We have received reports of other things happening in illegal madrasas, where children do not study but Rohingyas and criminals are present,” he said. The ‘land jihad’ agenda In yet another sign of the Uttarakhand government pushing the Hindutva agenda, Dhami has been a vocal critic of “love jihad, land jihad, and thuk (spit) jihad”. “Uttarakhand is a devbhoomi where everybody lives together. But, religious conversions will not be allowed… land jihad will not be allowed. You may have seen media reports that some people are engaging in thuk jihad. This will not be accepted,” he said at an event in Kichha of Udham Singh Nagar district in October last year. Reiterating his government’s stand in a statement on March 23 to commemorate three years of his second term, Dhami emphasised “concrete measures” taken to “preserve the cultural identity and social harmony of Uttarakhand”. He also claimed that “strict action was being taken on land jihad”. In an event the same day, the CM said the government had taken stern action against “disgusting mentalities of land jihad, love jihad and thuk jihad,” besides implementing a stringent anti-conversion law. Dhami’s reference was to the Uttarakhand Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Bill, 2022 — passed by his government — that makes unlawful religious conversion in the state a cognizable and non-bailable offence punishable with imprisonment of three to 10 years. Hailing the Act, Dhami had claimed it would be a “historic decision against the conspiracy of religious conversion happening in the shadow of fear, temptation and other fraudulent means”. Months after the anti-conversion Bill was passed, Dhami in April 2023 announced that “illegal mazaars (shrines)” would be demolished as a part of his government’s crackdown on “land jihad”. “There are over 1,000 places where unnecessary mazaars and other constructions are in place. When we searched these places, no remains were found underneath. We are not against anyone but will not allow forced encroachment,” he said. Targeting the Dhami government over its “failure” to provide jobs, lack of infrastructure development, state Congress chief Karan Mahara said, “The BJP is changing the names of places on the day Eid was being celebrated to hide infighting within the government. It also shows that it is trying to disturb social harmony by dividing Hindus and Muslims."
