‘Non-performing assets’: Gehlot takes aim at ‘backstabbers’ who continue to remain in Congress

Notably, Gehlot had used the words “nakara, nikamma” for former deputy CM Sachin Pilot during the latter’s rebellion in mid-2020.

Attacking leaders in Rajasthan who left the party in the past few months, he said that they were with the party for five years when it was in power in the state but left it in its hour of need. “This was the time to work. That is how history is made,” he said. He cited how Congress was almost wiped out in the north in 1977 “yet we stayed strong” and subsequently there was a huge wave for Indira Gandhi in the next election in 1980.

Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, Mahendra Jeet Singh Malviya, Lalchand Kataria, Rajendra Singh Yadav, among others, had left the Congress and joined the BJP. Gehlot said that many leaders who left had been in the party for 40-42 years and were given plum positions, from union minister to AICC general secretary, PCC president and even chief minister.

Without taking any names, he said that there are still some others who betrayed the party yet continue to be in it and now they should try and be assets to the party. “Those who betray and stab in the back, even they stay in the party. But this is opportunism. I would like to tell such people that tomorrow is yours – the coming generation. They should act in a way where they continue to be an asset for Congress 15 – 20 years down the line, and not become a liability,” he said, adding that it is Congress’s party character that whoever helps during a crisis doesn’t need to ask for anything from the party.

Asked about Rajasthan Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Avinash Gehlot’s statement that the reservation given to 14 Muslim castes in the OBC category in the state will be reviewed, the former CM said the reservation to backward Muslim castes was given based on OBC Commission’s recommendations.

“Whatever the government’s representatives say, nothing is going to happen because reservation was given under the recommendation of the OBC Commission over 25 years ago. It was when Jats, Bishnois got reservation … The OBC communities including Kayamkhani, Sindhi Muslim, which were backward, got reservation. All the Muslims didn’t get reservation,” he said. Avinash had said that reservation to 14 Muslim communities under OBC between 1997 and 2013 will be reviewed.

On Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent comments, including where he employed the word “mujra”, the former CM said that the PM’s post has a dignity and the PM is of the entire nation. “No one – not even Narendra Modi – has the right to degrade the dignity of the (PM) office,” he said.