As Vasundhara Raje slams babus over water woes, Congress turns up heat on Bhajan Lal govt

A two-term CM, Raje visited Jhalawar’s Raipur town Tuesday, where local officials apparently could not give a satisfactory reply to her queries regarding the drinking water issues.

“I won’t let this happen,” Raje said. “Prime Minister has given Rs 42,000 crores for the Jal Jeevan Mission. Give account of every penny and of what you did with Jhalawar’s share. Our government is giving money to solve the drinking water crisis, but the officers are not implementing the schemes properly. That is why the people of Rajasthan are thirsty. This is the situation in April. What will happen in June-July?” she asked.

Raje went on to say, “None of the officers present, including the superintending engineer, could give me a satisfactory answer. Do not test the patience of the people. This will not work in Jhalawar,” sharing a photo of herself seemingly reprimanding officials, including Deepak Jha, the superintending engineer of the Public Health Engineering (PHE) department, at a public hearing programme in Raipur town. Jha did not respond to calls made by The Indian Express for his reaction.

The Congress immediately seized on Rane’s remarks to step up its attack on the Bhajan Lal Sharma government. “Thank you Vasundhara Raje ji for telling the people of Rajasthan the truth about the inactive BJP government,” state Congress president Govind Singh Dotasra said. Quoting Raje, he said: “This lecture on the failures of the Bhajan Lal government is not being given by any Opposition leader but by BJP national vice-president and former chief minister Vasundhara Raje.”

Another Congress leader, Tika Ram Jully, the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the state Assembly, said that Raje’s words are “enough to expose the truth of the BJP government. How unfortunate it is that the former chief minister has to speak through media and social media for the fulfilment of a basic need like water despite her party being in power.” Former Congress ministers Pratap Singh Khachariyawas, Mamta Bhupesh, Ashok Chandna, among other Congress leaders, too attacked the Sharma government, citing Raje’s remarks.

Jhalawar is known to be Raje’s stronghold. She had been a five-time MP from Jhalawar and is currently into her fifth term as an MLA from the district’s Jhalrapatan Assembly seat. She had also been an MLA from Dholpur once. Her son Dushyant has been an MP from Jhalawar since 2004.

Following Raje’s posts, Union Jal Shakti Minister C R Paatil said his ministry has sought a report in the matter. “The concern raised by Vasundhara ji regarding the water crisis in Jhalawar has been taken seriously by the Ministry of Jal Shakti, Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Government of India. An immediate factual report has been sought from the Rajasthan government in this regard,” Paatil said.

In January, during her visit to Jodhpur, Raje had expressed anger over the poor condition of her mother Vijaya Raje Scindia’s statue, ticking off local officials.

Ever since she was ignored for the CM’s post after the BJP’s return to power in December 2023, Raje has made several veiled attacks at her opponents within the state BJP.

Speaking at an event in Udaipur in June last year, Raje, referring to former RSS leader and MP late Sunder Singh Bhandari, said that Bhandari held many a hand and promoted them in their political careers, adding that “But that era of loyalty was different… Today, people are the first to try and cut the same finger by holding which they learned to walk.”

At the state BJP headquarters in Jaipur in August 2024, when Madan Rathore took charge as the party unit chief, Raje said politics was all about ups and downs, “but every person needs to focus on three things: pad, mad aur kad (position, pride and stature). Position and pride are not permanent and only stature is permanent, which is made by your good work — and people remember you by your work. If you become proud of your position then your stature automatically diminishes.” In attendance then was the entire state BJP brass, including CM Sharma.

In the same month, she had also said: “Those who hurt others, those who cause mental agony, they may be happy for some time but in the end they have to go through the same path on which they tried to take others… You reap what you sow.”

In a statement last November, Raje said, “You can win even after losing. Maharana Pratap has taught us this. Maharana’s philosophy of life says that… no matter how much you love a snake, it will move according to its nature and will bite you, sooner or later.”

While there has been frequent criticism of the Bhajan Lal government from various quarters, including the Opposition and even from within the BJP, Raje’s Jhalawar remarks have marked her sharpest attack on it so far. Like some of her colleagues, Raje has targeted the Sharma dispensation by going after its bureaucrats.