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Journalism of Courage
Setting the stage for a confrontation with senior Rajasthan leader Sachin Pilot, the Congress high command made it abundantly clear on Monday night that his proposed fast would be against interests of the party and be treated as an “anti-party activity”.
Pilot has announced a day-long fast on Tuesday, and the Central leadership’s letter to him is a clear signal that the protest may result in initiation of disciplinary action against him.
At a press conference Sunday, Pilot said Congress colleague and Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot was sitting on corruption cases against the previous Vasundhara Raje-led BJP government, and said he would hold the fast to demand action on these cases.
In a surprise late-night statement on Monday, AICC in-charge of Rajasthan Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa said: “Sachin Pilot’s day-long fast tomorrow is against party interests and is (an) anti-party activity. If there is any issue with his own government, it can be discussed in the party forums instead of in the media and public.”
There was no immediate response from Pilot. Gehlot too has refrained from any comment on the latest row involving his former deputy.
Monday night’s statement is also a warning to Pilot loyalists who might have been planning to join his protest.
Sources in the high command said Randhawa spoke to Pilot over the phone on Monday, and asked him to come to Delhi to discuss issues he had raised at Sunday’s press conference. Initially, Randhawa planned to travel to Jaipur to meet Pilot and Gehlot, but changed his mind and called Pilot to Delhi.
In the long-festering row between Pilot and Gehlot, the high command seems in no mood for any conciliatory gestures towards the younger leader — who feels he was deprived of chief ministership after the Congress’s 2018 win and has barely hidden his feelings since – with elections due in months.
On Sunday too, after Pilot’s press meeting, Randhawa had made it clear which way Delhi was leaning when he said the former Deputy CM had never raised the issues he was now putting forth with the party or him. “I have been AICC in-charge for the last five months and Pilotji has never discussed this issue with me. I am in touch with him and I still appeal for calm dialogue since he is an indisputable asset to the Congress party,” Randhawa said in a statement.
Sources close to Pilot, however, said he had raised these issues with Randhawa’s predecessor Ajay Maken.
The high command also virtually endorsed Gehlot’s leadership, while making no mention of Pilot or the issues he had raised. “The Congress government in Rajasthan with Ashok Gehlot as CM has implemented a large number of schemes and taken many new initiatives that have impacted the people profoundly,” Congress communications head Jairam Ramesh said.
Apart from the embarrassment caused to its government in Rajasthan, the Congress leadership will not appreciate Pilot’s act at a time when it is hoping to have Opposition heat focused on issues over which it is targeting the BJP government including, that is, corruption.
“See, the party is preoccupied with (protesting against) Rahulji’s disqualification. We are holding press conferences every day, mobilising workers… It was not the right time,” Randhawa said Sunday.
In Jaipur, minister Ramlal Jat, seen as a Gehlot loyalist, said: “Working within discipline has importance within the party. We are going into elections.”
