political news

Raje pushing Rajasthan to anarchy: Gehlot
JAIPUR: Former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has alleged a total breakdown of law and order situation in the State. There is "anarchy'' in the State with Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje refusing to have any dialogue with the public and her Cabinet Ministers and the top level bureaucracy vying one another to adopt her own "despotic style'' on issues related to common man, he charged.

Talking to a group of media persons on Thursday -- when the local morning papers published a letter from Congress president Sonia Gandhi asking Ms. Raje to "take care of the law and order'' in the State -- Mr. Gehlot, presently the general secretary of the party, said there was reason to feel concerned about the emerging situation in Rajasthan.

"There is an absence of dialogue with the Chief Minister and the public. The common man cannot meet her or her Cabinet colleagues,'' Mr.Gehlot charged. "If she starts meeting the public half of the problems in Rajasthan would disappear,'' he asserted. He reminded her that after coming to power in the State the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Government had devised a programme for interaction with the public at the party office. "What has come of that programme,'' he asked.

Blaming the "intemperate language'' used by the Ministers, and of late by the bureaucracy, to describe people's agitations for growing instances of violence, Mr.Gehlot said the situation was being aggravated by the total absence of transparency and dialogue. The differences between the BJP and the Government, the Chief Minister and Home Minister, too had contributed to the present situation, he noted.

"The Government is gripped by a sense of guilt feeling which is making the Chief Minister and others to use this kind of language,'' Mr.Gehlot said. "In 18 months there had been eight instances of police firing in which many people have been killed. There had also been a large number of cases of custodial deaths,'' he pointed out. All the public agitations in the past had been spontaneous and there was no role of any political party in them, he observed.

"Instead of correcting the past mistakes the Government is driving the State into further chaos,'' Mr.Gehlot said citing the latest case of public upheaval in the form of the revival of the farmers' agitation for irrigation water in Sriganganagar. "What is the role of the Chief Minister towards finding solutions to the problems in the State,'' he asked.

Mr.Gehlot said the issue between farmers of Phase I and Phase II in sharing of waters of the Indira Gandhi Canal Project could be resolved through a dialogue. "The Government should take affected persons into confidence. If you explain to them the ground realities they will cooperate with you,'' he said.

Mr.Gehlot refused to risk a guess whether the Government would complete its full term in office but said it (the Government) had lost its moral authority to continue in power.