Rajasthan Congress leader and core committee member Sachin Pilot on Monday heaved a rare praise on the Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot-run Rajasthan government and said that his party’s government has reacted swiftly to incidents of crime and the situation is better than in BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
Sachin Pilot and Ashok Gehlot had famously drifted apart in 2020, when Pilot, then the Deputy Chief Minister of Rajasthan, rebelled against the Chief Minister Gehlot.
Pilot has also on several occasions flagged CM Gehlot government’s alleged inaction over the ‘corruption’ in the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP)’s Vasundhara Raje government.
Amid criticism by the BJP on law and order in poll-bound Rajasthan, Pilot defended the Ashok Gehlot government in a rather rare move, but an expected one since Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi mediated the soaring tension between the two leaders.
Pilot also targeted the BJP-led government at the Centre, saying it only misleads people and talks about religion to come into power.
Reacting to BJP leaders questioning Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who held a public meeting in Niwai, Tonk on Sunday, for not visiting Rajasthan after incidents of crime against women, Pilot said the opposition party is trying to make law and order an issue as assembly elections are approaching in Rajasthan.
“Whenever any incident has taken place, action has been taken and the accused have been arrested within hours. Such incidents can happen anywhere but we have taken immediate action,” Pilot told reporters in Dausa.
“We try our best to curb such incidents. What is happening in other states also has to be seen. The graph of crime is high in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, but the BJP leaders are making an issue here as Assembly elections are coming up,” the Tonk MLA added.
Pilot also said, “Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge should have been invited to the G20 gala dinner. If Kharge was invited, the world would have seen that the country is united,” he said. President Droupadi Murmu hosted the G20 dinner on Saturday at Bharat Mandapam in Delhi, the venue for the G20 Summit of world leaders.
He further said, “Inflation is rising, industries are getting shut. Airports, railways, powerhouses were sold at throw-away prices. But, the Centre is busy creating an issue over the country’s name. Both India and Bharat pre-exist.
“They (BJP) have only one work that is to mislead and incite people, talk about religion and caste to get into power and chant Ram-Ram.” Sachin Pilot added.
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Updated: 11 Sep 2023, 10:04 PM IST