Ankita Bhandari case: Protests grow amidst bandh call for 11 Jan

Along with an appeal for an ‘Uttarakhand Bandh’ on Sunday, 11 January by her father among others, public demonstrations continue in the state to demand a high court-monitored CBI probe into the murder of 19-year-old Ankita Bhandari in 2022. On Monday, 5 January there were demonstrations in Karnaprayag, Chamoli and Dharali. On Tuesday, too, calls for demonstrations have surfaced from several parts of the state.

The outpouring of public support for the Congress's march from Gauchar to Tharali on 5 January, the day after protests erupted in several parts of the state, including capital Dehradun, also made it clear that the Ankita Bhandari case has become a major test of public trust in the government and the system.

Simmering public anger is openly manifesting on the streets but the state government has maintained a studied silence. On Sunday, 4 January, a huge surge of protesters led by women marched towards chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami’s residence, though Dhami was not present in Dehradun. He was ‘busy’ in Delhi.

An equally huge deployment of police and barricades stopped the protesters two kilometres from the CM’s residence, and for several hours, the police continued to push and shove protesters back. Significantly, they did not try to disperse the crowd with a lathi (baton) charge or any other show of force.

CPI(ML) central committee member Indresh Maikhuri believes the restraint shown by the police was a sign of how vulnerable the BJP government is in the state over the issue. BJP state chief Mahendra Bhatt’s claim that the protests were being instigated by the Congress and political parties were disproved by the people in Dehradun, Maikhuri said.

It is a people’s movement which the state government does not know how to control. People within the BJP say they are unable to answer questions put to them by people and want the party to take some kind of action, he pointed out.

Maikhuri says if it was any other issue, the police would have resorted to a lathi charge. According to him, this is a sign of the government's nervousness. Maikhuri believes that the calm in the state is not the end of public anger, but rather the lull before the storm.

The government and the chief minister’s silence, not to speak of the continued silence of the BJP’s central leadership, is seen as ominous by some people in the state. On condition of anonymity, they say they believe that the government is planning something ‘big’ soon to deflect attention from the case. As it is, the media has been browbeaten to ignore the protests on the streets.

BJP leaders, increasingly on the backfoot, are abandoning press conferences, venting their frustration on reporters, snatching their microphones and mobiles. Reporters are badgering them with questions, a new phenomenon in the state. 'Why are you not answering the question,' is what they are increasingly being asked. The latest incident involved BJP Rajya Sabha MP Naresh Bansal, who was heckled. Videos of women showing black flags to BJP chief Mahendra Bhatt are also viral on social media.

Charu Tiwari of the Land Law Struggle Committee, Delhi-NCR, stated that a resolution was passed at Jantar Mantar during a protest on 4 January to the effect that if the state government fails to order a CBI inquiry within 10 days, the agitation would be escalated to the national capital. The BJP headquarters too, she warned, could see protests by people of Uttarakhand. There is no question of backing down, say protestors, adding that their fight for justice will not be limited to court proceedings.