By Shishir Prashant 
PrashantNews
Former Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat is not yet ready to hang up his boots despite the dwindling support within the state Congress party.
On a chilly afternoon, Rawat (77), supported by a small group of Congress workers, took out a march to the BJP’s headquarters in Dehradun in protest against the ruling party’s alleged attempt to defame his public image by portraying him a Pakistani spy.
Amid heavy barricading of the BJP headquarters, Rawat asked the saffron party to apologize and delete the reel on the social media handle of the Uttarakhand BJP which also allegedly portrayed him as a leader appeasing Muslims.
He threatened to launch six-day long agitation from January in case the BJP did not accept his demands. Rawat has filed an FIR against BJP on Wednesday on the issue.
Rawat said he would now focus completely on the politically sensitive Ankita Bhandari murder case to seek a CBI probe.
Rawat arrived at Nehru Colony Fountain Chowk at 1 PM as per his previously announced schedule. Despite heavy barricading and minor scuffles between Congress supporters and policemen, Rawat managed to reach the BJP headquarters where he first paid tributes to Atal Bihari Vajpayee saying BJP should maintain social harmony by taking everyone along.
He said, “BJP friends, you are lying when you try to tarnish my public image. You all speak in in one voice from top to bottom. When challenged, you don’t provide proof. That’s why I have come today to ask for proof from you.”
“I have been portrayed as a spy for Pakistan and a traitor. Violence based on hatred towards me has been encouraged, even suggesting I should be shot. Provide proof that I am a Pakistani spy. You have misused AI to present my image in such a way that it disrupts the social harmony of the state,” Rawat said angrily.
He also criticized the BJP government on the Ankita Bhandari murder case, amid new revelations of the presence of VIPs by names of Gattu and Bhattu when she was murdered in a resort in Pauri district in 2022.
He said that Ankita’s murder is an attack on Uttarakhand, and the way evidence was destroyed, bulldozers were used, and forensic evidence was erased, all of it was a conspiracy to save Gattu and Bhattu, and a CBI inquiry should be ensured by a sitting judge of the Supreme Court or the High Court.
