The anger sparked by Cabinet Minister Premchand Agarwal’s alleged unparliamentary remarks against the hill people in the Uttarakhand Assembly flared up on Thursday with hundreds of people taking to the streets in the state’s summer capital Gairsain to demand his dismissal. Men and women from the hill districts of both Kumaon and Garhwal, holding placards and wearing skullcaps with ”Mai Hoon Pahadi” written on them, converged in Gairsain for a rally at the call of Pahad Swabhiman Manch to demand the minister’s ouster from the state Cabinet. Agarwal is a minister in the Pushkar Singh Dhami government, holding key portfolios like finance and parliamentary affairs. He is also the former Speaker of the state Assembly. Recently, during the Budget Session of the state Assembly, Agarwal reacted angrily to a comment directed towards him by Congress MLA Madan Bisht and said he had not fought for statehood to see this day when a dichotomy was being made between ‘pahadi’ and ‘desi’. During the argument between Agarwal and opposition MLAs, an abusive word had also come out of the minister’s mouth.
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