Modi govt must now cooperate: Rawat after high court verdict

Dehradun: An upbeat Harish Rawat today made it clear that his government does not want to pursue a confrontationist path with the "mighty, powerful and broad- chested" Centre, asking it to work in a spirit of cooperative federalism. Hailing the Uttarakhand High Court verdict setting aside President's rule in the state and restoring his government, Rawat said the Modi government should forget the recent developments and cooperate. His colleagues have been told to let go off the bitterness and work together to take the state forward on the path of development, Rawat said. "We don't want to fight...They are powerful, mighty and broad chested. We do not talk of fighting, but talk of cooperation. I would request the Centre to forget the past and work in the spirit of cooperative federalism," he said addressing a press conference at his residence here. Welcoming the HC order restoring his government, he said, "Uttarakhand has got justice... This is a victory of people of Uttarakhand. We welcome the verdict. The whole country knows who was behind the political instability in the state." He also said, "I would like to thank High Court on behalf of all democratic and progressive forces." Rawat urged the Centre to let the state do its work and said this is not the time of celebrate but to fulfil his duties towards the state. He said the Centre's act of imposing President's Rule just ahead of the vote of confidence inflicted "four deep wounds" on Uttarakhand. Listing them out, he said, "Defection was caused with the use of coercive measures, when with Governor's permission we were a few steps away from proving our majority and President's rule was imposed by the Centre." He added, "The poor man's budget was ordered to be thrown in the dustbin and welfare schemes went haywire at a time when all schemes lined up were to be finetuned towards the end of financial year." The crucial time when the momentum of the budget spending was to take place has now gone and now "we have to strive to compensate for the loss suffered during the last two months". "All our plans have gone haywire and we will once again try to put them together," he said. Rawat said people of the state suffered a lot due to the political instability in the past two months and its developmental schemes have also suffered. Rawat said he would still request the Centre to support Uttarakhand in its development as his government was ready to forget the past and move forward together. Coming down heavily on the Centre for the March 27 proclamation issued under Art 356, a division bench of the high court headed by Chief Justice K M Joseph said the imposition of the President's rule was contrary to the law laid down by the Supreme Court.