After Tejasvi’s visit, Gehlot accuses BJP of ‘provoking’ situation

After BJP MP Tejasvi Surya stopped entering from Karauli with other leaders on Wednesday, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot hit out at the BJP saying: “The name is Tejasvi Surya but look for what he came here. I already said that these people came to further provoke the situation.”

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot.

“The incident in Karauli was unfortunate. We were worried that Karauli-like incidents shouldn’t happen in other places,” Gehlot told the journalists here.

CM Ashok Gehlot also criticised incidents in Madhya Pradesh and said: “In other states where riots broke out, houses were demolished by governments. Neither PM nor CM has a right as such where without any investigation such an action can be taken. Only the law has the prerogative to do so and it should take its own course.”

“These people talk about Ambedkar but they never followed his teachings. Sardar Patel, whom they (BJP) follow, had banned RSS. They use all sorts of propaganda to win elections,” Gehlot alleged. “They are talking about Ambedkar today, but is there any adherence to the Constitution he authored,” Gehlot argued.

On asking if the BJP getting active even when the elections are too far, Gehlot said they have money power that has come through electoral bonds. Industrialists are under pressure and money through electoral bonds is going to the BJP, the Rajasthan CM alleged. The fight is that of ideology, he added. If the constitutional spirits could not be protected then the country will have to suffer, said the CM.

The Rajasthan Chief Minister also came down heavily on the BJP MPs on the issue of Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project (ERCP). He targeted the BJP leaders saying they remained silent in Parliament over this issue and could not do anything to get the ERCP the status of a national project from the Centre. He also targeted Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, saying that the ERCP deserved to be accorded the status of a national project, but the minister, who hails from the desert state, was not doing anything to convince the Centre.