Harish Rawat says Shah’s barb against him shows BJP mentality

Former Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat has hit back at Union Home Minister Amit Shah for using a Hindi idiom alluding to the Congress leader’s “helpless” state within his party, and said that the statement showed the “mentality” of the BJP.

At a rally in Raipur on Saturday, Shah said the Congress is unable to decide the role of Rawat in the coming state Assembly elections, adding his situation was similar to ‘dhobi ka… na ghar ka na ghaat ka’. The full Hindi idiom makes a reference to the word dog, and Shah said he did not want to use it.

“Ye bechare Harish Rawat ko neta banayenge, nahi banayenge, banayenge, nahi banayenge, ticket denge, nahi denge, yahan se denge, wahan se denge (The Congress cannot decide whether to make Harish Rawat their leader or not, whether to give him a ticket or not, and from where)… “Yeh dhobi ka… aage nahi bolna chahta… na ghar ka ghaat ka,” said Shah.

Rawat reacted to the statement on Sunday, saying that even if the Home Minister wants to refer to him as a dog, he will continue to stand up for Uttarakhand, and “bark” and “bite” for the state.

“Your words have shown the low mentality of BJP for people of Uttarakhand… I will do whatever I need for the security of Uttarakhand and Uttarakha-ndiyat,” Rawat wrote on Twitter.

The former CM also said in a video statement: “Thank you, (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi-ji, and thank you, respected Amit Shah-ji. You all are coming to Uttarakhand and attacking this small worker of the Congress party. Yesterday, Amit Shah said… that Harish Rawat is dhobi ka, blank, na ghar ka na ghaat ka… Even if I am a dog in his eyes, at least I am of Uttarakhand. I will talk for Uttarakhand. If I will bark, as per him, then it will be for Uttarakhand. But also remember that if the interests of Uttarakhand are hurt, then along with barking, I will bite too.”