Everyone should live in peace, I am not a Muslim baiter, says Raj CM

JAIPUR: Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje says she is saddened by how the state’s image has taken a beating in the wake of “certain crimes” in the past. She, however, stands by the state police, which, she says, has reacted swiftly in each case.

Talking to Hindustan Times, the chief minister said Rajasthan is a not the state that “outsiders have made it out to be”. “People who wrote about the case (of an alleged cattle smuggler killed in a police shootout) never bothered to come to Rajasthan and find the truth,” she says referring to similar cow-related incidents, especially in Alwar.

Raje says in Rajsamand, the police arrested the accused in less than a day. “Crimes will happen everywhere. What matters is the response time. I am happy to tell you that our response rate has gone up while the crime rate is going down,” she said.

She doesn’t agree that Muslims in the state are in a state of fear and shock in the backdrop of cow-related lynchings. “I am not a Muslim baiter, never have been, but I believe that everyone should live in peace,” she says as she prepares herself for some major announcements on Wednesday, the day she completes four years in office.

Raje wouldn’t say what these announcements are. “There may be some, watch out for them.”

The chief minister says the rollout of GST did cause some problems in the state but adds that things have now been sorted out. “Whenever a new thing comes into being, there are teething problems. We put our case before the Centre and our issues are now resolved,” she said.