Resuming tourism, Char Dham Yatra absolutely necessary for Uttarakhand: CM Pushkar Dhami

Khatima MLA Pushkar Singh Dhami was sworn in on Sunday evening as the state's 11th chief minister — the third in four months — in what was a shock move that left a handful of BJP MLAs miffed.

Dhami, also the state's youngest-ever CM, spared no time in listing out his priorities, from improving the state's Covid-19 management to providing jobs to unemployed youths. He said he would also revive the battered tourism sector, a major source of revenue for the state.

"I have been working among youngsters and I understand the issues very well. Covid has impacted their livelihood. We will try to make the situation better for them and will try to appoint youngsters for the vacant posts in the state,” he was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

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According to CMIE, unemployment in the state has risen from 1.7 per cent in 2016-17 to 11 per cent in 2020-21. Soon after his appointment, a few netizens took to Twitter, with one saying that a new CM every month was the solution to fixing Uttarakhand's unemployment crisis.

The 45-year-old BJP MLA also said he would resume tourism and the recently-suspended Char Dham Yatra, something he described as "absolutely necessary". "There are difficulties but resuming tourism and Char Dham Yatra in the state is absolutely necessary for us,” he said.

Amidst the frenzy over his appointment, Dhami also found himself mired in controversy when Twitter users dug up an old tweet of his from 2015, where he shared an image of the map of 'Akhand Bharat', albeit with an incorrect version of India's borders.

The image shared by the new CM had left out PoK and Ladakh, which drew sharp criticism from all corners. Such misrepresentation has previously landed the likes of Twitter, WHO, and the BBC in a soup.

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Jawhar Sircar, a former IAS officer and CEO of Prasar Bharti, slammed Dhami, sarcastically suggesting that the BJP should have made the Uttarakhand CM Foreign Minister instead.

"Shouldn’t BJP be making this man Foreign Minister of India rather than CM of a tiny state like Uttarakhand? Then, we can all move to 3rd World War!," he tweeted.

To add to his troubles, a number of BJP MLAs were upset over his sudden elevation to the CM's post, with some reportedly leaving the meeting in which he was chosen as the successor to Tirath Singh Rawat.

Uttarakhand, along with a handful of states, is set to go to polls in 2022. Given the political instability, Dhami's completion of term is anything but certain.