Ignoring Cong advice, Pilot goes on a fast against graft
Sachin Pilot sat on the symbolic fast between 11 am and 4 pm, under a photograph of Mahatma Gandhi.
Defying a Congress statement that characterised his protest as “anti-party activity”, senior Congress leader and former Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot fasted for a day in Jaipur on Tuesday, demanding action from the Ashok Gehlot led Congress government against alleged corruption by the previous Vasundhara Raje led BJP regime. Later, Pilot said that his “struggle against corruption” would continue, indicating that the civil war in the Congress would continue.
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Late on Monday night, a statement released by the All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge of Rajasthan, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, said that the protest was against the interests of the party, and that if Pilot had complaints against his own government, they should be raised within, and not in front of the media or the public.
Pilot ignored that statement and sat on the symbolic fast between 11 am and 4 pm , under a photograph of Mahatma Gandhi, with a banner that said, “Vasundhara Sarkar Me Hue Bhrastachar ke Viruddh Anshan (hunger strike against corruption during the Vasundhara government)”. Speaking after the event ended, Pilot said, “ I have been raising this issue for a long time. In her (Raje’s) tenure, as the opposition, we raised and exposed several scandals and promised the public that when we come to power, they would be probed.”
Pilot said he wrote letters on the subject to chief minister Ashok Gehlot, but did not receive a reply. “I have written many letters to the Chief Minister and would usually get a reply, but did not get one on two letters related to this issue. Now that we are in government, I thought that action will be taken but nothing has happened for the past four and a half years. I sat on this fast demanding action .”
“We want clean politics in the state and the country and this struggle against corruption will continue,” he added.
There was no Congress MLA with Pilot at the site of the protest, something those close to Pilot attributed to him telling them to stay away, but there were other senior leaders such as former mayor Jyoti Khandelwal, Mahesh Sharma, Gopal Singh and ex-MLA Param Navdeep..
Since the Congress came to power in December 2018, chief minister Gehlot and Pilot have incessantly sparred, with fissures coming to the fore repeatedly. In July 2020, Pilot and at least 18 MLAs rebelled against the Chief Minister, asking for a change in leadership, prompting a month long political crisis that only subsided after the party “high command” assured Pilot that his grievances would be looked into.
Then, in September 2022, over 90 MLAs submitted their “resignation” to the assembly speaker, opposing a legislature party meeting called to determine Gehlot’s successor as chief minister with the Rajasthan CM being the prime choice for Congress President. That ended with the Congress leadership allowing Gehlot to stay on as CM.
In his statement on Monday night, Randhawa said he was in touch with Pilot and “appealed to him to talk peacefully”, calling him an indisputable asset to the Congress.
BJP spokesperson and MLA Ramlal Sharma said that the “fast” was a political tool for Pilot and had little to do with corruption. “He is making baseless allegations to suppress the infighting going on inside his party. They should manage their own house, and it is their MLAs and ministers that are mired in corruption. There is no need to mislead the public,” Sharma said.
Political analyst Manish Godha said, “This is an election year, and such protest against the government is a big blow to the party in the elections, especially when they should be united to fight the BJP.”
Meanwhile, earlier in the day, lauding the schemes and policies by the Rajasthan government, chief minister Ashok Gehlot on Tuesday expressed his desire to “make Rajasthan the number one state by 2030”.
He said a lot has to be done to make ‘Mission 2030’ a success - “the first step was the budget of savings, relief and growth”. “I have decided that by 2030, I have to make Rajasthan the number one state in the country. To make this dream come true, in the last four budgets and this year’s budget for savings, relief, progress, I have made such schemes which are not there in any other state,” he said in a video message shared on social media.
