Scuffle in House, heat on Cong as sacked Rajasthan minister claims a ‘red diary’ to implicate CM Gehlot

Rajendra Singh Gudha says he retrieved the diary from CM aide Dharmendra Rathore's home during a 2020 IT raid; claims Cong MLAs snatched it from him in Assembly

Sacked minister Rajendra Gudha outside the Rajasthan Assembly on Monday. Showing a red diary, he claimed he had a second volume that he would reveal later. (Express photo by Rohit Jain Paras)

Written by: Deep Mukherjee

6 min readJaipurJul 25, 2023 03:02 AM IST First published on: Jul 24, 2023 at 01:54 PM IST

The sacking of Rajendra Singh Gudha as Rajasthan minister has taken a new turn, with the Udaipurwati MLA dropping hints of a “red diary” containing incriminating details about Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot. On Monday, a day after he repeated the claim, Gudha was involved in a scuffle with fellow Congress leaders inside the state Assembly, while waving a red diary in the House.

Later, Gudha was prevented from even entering the Assembly building by House Marshalls, in an unusual step. Subsequently, he was suspended for the remainder of the Monsoon Session along with BJP MLA Madan Dilawar. Gudha claimed that this was done to prevent him from tabling the “red diary”.

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He showed another red diary to reporters after his eviction from the Assembly, saying he had a second volume, which he would reveal at the “right time”. “The diary was snatched from me and I was beaten up because the diary could send the CM to jail,” said Gudha.

The Udaipurwati MLA was removed as minister last Friday by Gehlot soon after he spoke of alleged assaults against women in the state – an allegation raised by the BJP.

Since then, he has been dropping hints of a “red diary” that could cost Gehlot dear. On Sunday, speaking at an event in Jhunjhunu, he said he had taken the “red diary” out from the house of Congress leader Dharmendra Rathore, when it was being raided by the Income Tax department in 2020, on the instructions of Gehlot. He added that the CM would have found himself in jail if he hadn’t managed to retrieve the diary.

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Gudha’s reference was to the raids in July 2020 when Rajasthan was engulfed in a political crisis due to then deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot’s rebellion against CM Gehlot. Rathore is a close aide of the CM.

According to Gudha, Gehlot asked him to go to Rathore’s house and get the diary. “Had Rajendra Gudha not been there, Mukhyamantriji, you would have been in jail… That day, the CM said, ‘Gudha, everything is now in your hands’. After that if I had not gone up to the ninth floor, dodging 150 CRPF jawans, broken the gate and brought that (diary) back, Gehlot saab would have been in jail and not been the Chief Minister.”

Gudha has also claimed that Gehlot enquired with him several times later on whether he had burnt the diary or not.

After his eviction from the Assembly Monday, Gudha said: “If there was nothing in that diary, then why did all the MLAs pounce on me and snatch it from me? They beat me up, (Congress leader Shanti) Dhariwal kicked me… I wanted to table the dairy in the Assembly.”

Asking why he was removed as minister without any hearing, Gudha added: “The diary has details of all the financial transactions which happened in do number (black money)… Who was given money for cricket (association) elections, Rajya Sabha, which MLA got how much money during the political crisis (in 2020)….”

Gehlot’s son Vaibhav Gehlot heads the Rajasthan Cricket Association.

However, while he made mention of “Rs 200-500 crore” transactions in the diary, he didn’t make any specific allegations.

The BJP, which has been raising Gudha’s sacking as proof that Rajasthan had failed to check assaults on women, said the state wanted to know about the red diary and it would raise the issue in the Assembly.

Union Jal Shakti Minister and Rajasthan BJP leader Gajendra Singh Shekhawat told reporters on Monday: “I want to ask Ashok Gehlot saheb what is this red diary and why is there so much worry in the government and the CM over it. The way Congress leaders were hurrying to snatch the red diary from Gudha at the Assembly today, and making attempts to tear it… it shows there is some foul play.”

Leader of the Opposition (LoP) Rajendra Rathore told reporters: “We will ask Gudha to reveal the mystery of the red diary to the public.”

The Congress rubbished Gudha’s allegations as “baseless”. “Our Rajasthan in-charge Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa has asked Rajasthan Congress president Govind Singh Dotasra to investigate Gudha. We cannot rule out the possibility of some sort of coordination between him and the BJP as, right after his statement in the Assembly, LoP Rajendra Rathore praised him… Why did Gudha not talk about these things when he was a minister?” Congress general secretary and spokesperson Swarnim Chaturvedi said.

Gehlot had sacked Gudha hours after he said in the Assembly last week that the manner in which crimes against women have increased in Rajasthan, there was need for introspection rather than talk on Manipur. The BJP, under heat over the sexual assault on tribal women in Manipur caught on video, had seized on Gudha’s remarks, saying they made clear that the Rajasthan government had failed to check atrocities against women.

“What did I say?” Gudha said Sunday. “I only said that in Rajasthan, women are being raped. You sent me to the Assembly to speak the truth. Our sisters and mothers sent me to the Assembly. After that you were not able to protect our sisters and mothers, rapes are happening daily. I spoke about it at the biggest panchayat (Assembly) of Rajasthan.”