A 45-minute hike from Rudraprayag will lead you to a remote village on a hilltop at the farthest corner of Pauri Garhwal. Gawana is the ancestral village of India’s current Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan.
After the motorable roads end, a steep hike on foot will land you at the Panchayat Bhawan of the small village to which India’s highest-ranking Army officer belongs. Next to the Panchayat Bhawan is a locked house, which still adorns the Tricolour. This belongs to the family of General Chauhan.
Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, this village is overwhelmingly leaning towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with even family members of India’s Chief of Defence Staff declaring: “Vote toh Modi ke naam pe hi padega (our vote is for Modi)”.
Pankaj, a young man in his late twenties, standing next to the small two-storey house told News18: “We are very proud that this is the village of India’s CDS. But we are also very hurt at how the Congress abused another son of the soil — General Bipin Rawat”.
General Chauhan’s predecessor, General Rawat was killed in an air crash in 2021. He belonged to Sain Gaon, which also falls in the Garhwal region.
An 80-year-old bespectacled woman in the village was visibly emotional. “I have lost my brother. Modi is my brother. We are his family. The free ration we eat is because of him. Why would we vote for anyone else?”
A young woman who is married to Chauhan’s family reasoned the anti-Congressism of the village. “We don’t like the Congress. No one from this village will vote for them. What have they done for Gawana or even Uttarakhand? Instead, they left no stones unturned in insulting us. My vote is for Modi,” she said.
Both she and Pankaj were referring to Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit calling the later General Rawat a “sadak ka gunda (street thug)”, a statement the local BJP candidate, Anil Baluni, has been constantly reminding the electorate of in his campaign speeches.
Another 80-year-old joined the conversation as the locals made space for her to sit. “It’s not that the Congress hasn’t done anything in 70 years. But Modi has surpassed that in 10 years. We may live in this remote village with no shop or primary healthcare nearby, but we aren’t naive.”
A few hours before this conversation, BJP candidate Baluni had visited the village to interact with some of the locals and sought their blessings. Asked about his repeated reference to the “ill-treatment” of General Rawat, Baluni shot back.
“Look I want to point out that this is not a campaign issue. This is a matter that is related to the brave hearts of Uttarakhand, related to the land of Garhwal,” he told News18. He made an emotional pitch, saying Garhwalis aren’t a “near-dead society” and that they would get riled up hearing such abuses for one of their tallest sons.
While remarks against the late Bipin Rawat remain a talking point in Gawana, the absolute faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi among the locals is another reason there not a single villager who told News18 they would vote for the Congress.
One of the senior-most members of the village, a lady in her late 80s told News18: “Look, it is straightforward. My son lost his leg. He is differently abled. Modi’s schemes help run my house. Why wouldn’t I vote for the BJP?”
As afternoon gave way to evening and the News18 crew was preparing for the way down from the village, a kind woman insisted we carry some water with us and guided us on how to take the right steps to avoid tripping up.
In Hindi mixed with Garhwali, she summed up the village’s sentiment: “Look son, I don’t understand politics. But Gawana very well understands national interest.”
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