Congress flags, party support missing, Sachin Pilot starts yatra with ‘river of fire’ barb; Ashok Gehlot takes thari-mhari shot

Swimming, in this case, is doing a 125-km padyatra over five days under the scorching summer Sun, covering about 25 km each day. Pilot reiterated that his yatra is “not against anyone but against corruption, and to protect (interests of the) youth.”

In a veiled attack at Pilot, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said in Jaipur: “Only a person who takes everyone along is successful. The one who talks only of himself (and) creates factionalism cannot ever be successful in life.”

Gehlot said when his first Cabinet was formed in 1998, he had made it a point to include everyone — “be it a high command person, or Sonia Gandhi’s person”, or a Congress leader. “I have seen people doing factional politics, thari-mhari (yours versus mine), but such people can never be successful. They are not loyal to the party either,” he said, employing an idiom to imply that he has worked hard by himself rather than undermining others.

Over the last few weeks, Pilot has criticised Gehlot on multiple occasions for allegedly not taking action in corruption cases.

कांग्रेस की सरकार 500 रुपए में गैस सिलेंडर दे रही है, ताकि जनता को महंगाई से राहत मिल सके।

प्रधानमंत्री @narendramodi जी, आप भी इस दिशा में सोच सकते हैं।

: राजस्थान के मुख्यमंत्री श्री @ashokgehlot51 pic.twitter.com/N3AT6i9xyA

— Congress (@INCIndia) May 10, 2023

Amid the tussle between the two leaders, the Congress party tweeted a video of Gehlot acting on demands of students, with the caption “jan jan ke Mukhyamantri (people’s Chief Minister)”.

Like his earlier day-long dharna against corruption, Congress flags and symbols, as well as MLAs supporting him, were missing from the yatra on Thursday, while patriotic songs were played amid a sea of Tricolours.

Asked about the missing symbols, state Congress chief Govind Singh Dotasra said the party has nothing to do with the yatra, and it is Pilot’s personal programme. “A Congress yatra has the party’s symbol and images of (party national president Mallikarjun) Kharge-ji, Rahul Gandhi-ji and Sonia Gandhi-ji…. No permission was taken (for this yatra) from the party organisation or the AICC.”

Besides his strong hold in Ajmer — it is his former Lok Sabha constituency — another reason for Pilot to begin the yatra from the region is that the head office of Rajasthan Public Service Commission (RPSC), which has been at the centre of several controversies concerning examination paper leaks, is in Ajmer. Using the paper leak case to hit out at the government, Pilot said: “Perhaps it is for the first time since independence that an RPSC member has been arrested, but is it enough to arrest the official? Who are the people behind it? When a bulldozer can raze the home of a middleman (Bhupendra Saran), why is there no bulldozer on (Babulal) Katara’s home?”

He ended his speech with slogans of ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’.

During his address, Pilot reiterated that the Congress was reduced to its worst mandate in Rajasthan since Independence in 2013, while the BJP won the maximum seats ever by any party in the state. However, it all came undone when he and the Congress and its workers raised the issue of corruption, Pilot said.

“We assured the public that justice will be done when we come to power,” he said. Pilot recalled that he had written to the CM, demanding a probe into cases during the previous BJP government under Vasundhara Raje. “I kept writing letters for a year and a half but did not raise it publicly,” he said. But, he told the crowd, no action was taken. “I want to ask you: should those accusations be investigated or not?”

Earlier, after Gehlot claimed that Raje had helped save his government in 2020, Pilot had said that it appeared Gehlot’s leader was not Sonia Gandhi but the former CM. Even in Karnataka, he said, if the Congress is in a position to get a majority it is because the party raised the issue of corruption under the BJP government in the state.

With Gehlot remarking that he had urged the rebel Congress MLAs of 2020 who “took money” to “return it to (Amit) Shah”, Pilot said his family has been in politics for the last 45 years, and not even adversaries can raise a finger on its honesty, let alone make accusations of corruption.