US embassy officials in Dehradun to get first hand report on election

DEHRADUN : The Trump government in America is keeping tab on the election scenario in the election bound states in India. Two officials from USA Embassy had interaction with people from diverse section of society in Dehradun.

Jake Miner

, political officer told TOI, “We are travelling to Indian states where elections are due to take first hand information from the field, despite the fact that we have different other sources to collect the information. After talking to people from various cross-section of society about the issues playing important roles and the reasons for various political parties or candidates heading to possible victory/defeat, we will submit our report to the Washington office.”

Ivan Boekelheide

, another official said that they were curious if demonetisation or Modi's charisma will play any crucial role in the election. Ajay Saxena, academician said, “People were discouraged to criticise the demonetisation and those who did so were painted as anti-national by supporters of BJP. So despite facing lot of troubles such as standing in bank queues for hours together, people still appeared to be rallying behind Modi. However the election results will clear if public accepted or rejected demonetisation or Modi charisma prevails or fails.”

Kamal Kapoor

, hotelier told the panel that hoteliers lost their business like other industrialists and businessmen in rest of the country because of demonetisation. Turning toward the state programs on tourism promotion, he said that the tourism is back bone of the state economy, however the state government has failed to make any headway in tourism.

Sadhna Sharma, social worker, said that women in the state who had been leading all the big agitations from front and handling everything from household to agrarian fields back home are quite sentimental over liquor shops opening in the villages. So the women are likely to vote for the candidates who would lend them support against the liquor.

Former chief secretary SS Pangtey expressed concern over increasing graph of migration in the mountainous region saying that the hill villages are getting vacant with people moving toward cities for good schools, hospitals, civic amenities and employment opportunities. He said, people are in disarrey, so migration would be an important issue in the election.