‘Real battle is to save democracy in country’
n Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot spoke to HT about the resolution of the political crisis in the state, how his 100 supporters did not break rank, the return of his former deputy Sachin Pilot to the party fold, and what lies ahead for his government.
Edited excerpts:
is final, and we all respect that. We thank the determination and grit of all our 100 legislators. The BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) and others tried everything to woo them, but they stood firm like a rock and not a single legislator broke ranks. I spoke to each one of them and pacified them. Their sentiments are attached with the Congress. I should also thank the people of Rajasthan for their support. They used to call our legislators and tell them that even if you have to stay together for months, do that, but ensure that the BJP does not succeed in its nefarious designs. It is unprecedented in the Indian history that so many legislators stayed together for such a long period. Their only aim and motive was to save the government. decision and all of us are with the high command.
I know it is a long battle but we are ready to face any challenge and defeat the BJP in carrying out its anti-democratic steps. members were trying to topple the Bhairon Singh Shekhawat government. I told them that I, as state Congress president at the time, wrote to Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao and Rajasthan governor Bali Ram Bhagat, saying that we are not part of the bid to topple Shekhawat’s government. I have always been against any move to oust a democratically elected government. So, I wrote them to take them into consideration. The BJP also cancelled its meeting today as it is clearly on a back foot.
Both Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi played an active role. It is laudable and shows their leadership qualities. The party has also formed a threemember committee to address the issue. I welcome that decision also.
About three-four weeks ago, I was served a notice under sedition charges and as deputy chief minister and party president, I felt it was unwarranted. A lot of us were deeply hurt by that, and a few of our colleagues wanted to come to Delhi to tell the party organisation not just about the one issue, but also about many things we had been contemplating for long. Once that started, a lot of other developments happened, but I think ultimately the objective was to bring the grassroots feedback to the leadership. We were well within our rights to raise the issue within the party forum, and we said that we were raising the issue as Congressmen. I don’t think anything we did was at all anti-party.
There are people in different hierarchies responsible for the communication within the party leadership in Delhi and Rajasthan. Those channels didn’t work out very well, as we know in hindsight. Because the actions were being taken very quickly in Jaipur, between the notices and court cases and suspensions, it came to pass that we had to do what we had to do. Because if we didn’t fight and stand up for what we believed in, we wouldn’t be here today. I’m very happy that the Congress president has now assured all of us that a timebound road map is being evolved to redress issues that were raised.
I know what everyone was saying, but the actions were totally opposite. A lot of our colleagues who were ministers were now police suspects. Those actions were also a major aspect of what went on in the past few weeks.
It’s never a competition about who’s got more. Whoever the party makes CM will have the majority. The number of MLAS and leaders who had things to say were depending on me to be their voice. I did that.