Whither Uttarakhand? From environment to tourism, it's all wrong

In 2020, a Dalit girl was gang-raped and murdered in Hathras, Uttar Pradesh. There was considerable delay in filing the FIR. The police hastily cremated her body despite the family's protests. A journalist from Kerala who was coming to investigate the matter was picked up on the way and imprisoned under serious charges.

In 2022, a teenage girl was raped and murdered in Bulandshahr district of Uttar Pradesh. The police cremated her body overnight. The FIR for the crime, committed on 21 January, was filed on 1 February. Those who raised their voices were intimidated and threatened.

The case of Ankita Bhandari's murder in Uttarakhand in September 2022 is similar, but more serious. It took her father three days to even get an FIR registered. Important evidence was destroyed when a BJP MLA got Ankita's room demolished with a bulldozer. The police did not even allow the mother to see her daughter's face and quickly cremated the body.

This has become a familiar style of policing in BJP-ruled states, especially when the accused are associated with the ruling party. Deliberate delay in filing FIRs, giving powerful individuals/accused the opportunity to destroy evidence, immediate cremation, presenting whatever the police say as the truth, sending minor accused to jail and then proclaiming justice, implicating those who protest in other cases and gathering a crowd of supporters to raise slogans in response.

From the start, it was clear in Ankita's case that she was being pressured to provide 'extra services' to some VIPs at the resort in Rishikesh where she had started work barely 18 days before her murder. The resort belonged to a former BJP minister's son, who is now in jail along with two of his associates. The people of Uttarakhand, Opposition representatives and some journalists have been demanding from the outset that the case be handed over to the CBI to expose the VIPs and the alleged sex trafficking ring associated with them.

The Dhami government has denied the involvement of any VIP in the case, offering the ridiculous argument that the mention of a VIP actually referred to the 'VIP suite' at the resort.

The entire system is deliberately ignoring the WhatsApp chat between Ankita and her friend Pushp around 9.30 pm on 17 September 2022, where she clearly wrote, "Ankit told me that some VIPs are coming on Monday, and I have to provide them with extra services." This conversation is part of the prosecution's documents. A national-level fact-finding team, initiated by a women's forum, has also included this entire WhatsApp chat in its detailed report.

Now that the wife of a former BJP MLA has released a video naming the VIP, there were largescale protests across Uttarakhand and in Delhi, demanding that the case be handed over to the CBI. Thanks to this public pressure chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami handed over the case to the CBI on Friday, 9 January.

Ankita's case is not limited to sexual harassment or the murder of a poor, promising girl who went out to work with dreams of a better future. It is also a consequence of the state government's half-baked and short-sighted plans to develop and promote Uttarakhand as a "tourism state".

The crucial issue of safety of girls working in the chaotically growing number of hotels, homestays, spa centres, etc., is also linked to this. Numerous illegal management institutes have sprung up, making money by offering aspiring girls a three-year course in just six months. These under- or untrained girls, employed in hotels, spas, and massage parlours, become victims of economic and physical exploitation. This unregulated tourism is bringing disaster not only to the environment of the hills but also to its people.

Along with a CBI investigation into the issues surrounding Ankita Bhandari's murder, it is essential to shed light on the dark underbelly of the tourism industry.