JAIPUR: Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has accused the BJP and RSS of plotting the riots that have recently taken place across the country including four incidents of communal tension in the state over the past month. Commenting on the situation, CM Gehlot said “these people are setting fire everywhere.” He also challenged Home Minister Amit Shah to investigate the riots and said that if he has guts, then he should form a committee to hold an independent probe on the riots that have erupted in 7 states in the past few weeks.
CM Gehlot made these sharp comments in a media interaction on Thursday in Udaipur where he had gone to review the preparations for the Congress Chintan Shivir from May 13 to 15. The BJP and the Congress have been blaming each other in Rajasthan ever since a riot broke out in Karauli in April. This was followed a few days later by tensions over the demolition of a 300-year-old temple in Alwar and the communal clashes in Jodhpur on Eid.
In this context, CM Ashok Gehlot said that the BJP's preparation is to set fire and engineer riots “as they know that they are losing the next election.”
“They have come to know that the people of Rajasthan will decide this time in their own way. That’s why I said that the experiment of Karauli has become a laboratory in a way though you have seen that we did not allow riots on Ram Navami,” he said.
CM Gehlot asserted, “In Rajasthan, people of all religions showered flowers on Ram Navami. But riots broke out in 7 states and then bulldozers started being used everywhere. Like the way in which riots were incited in Karauli, the same way was used in 7 states. I feel this should also be investigated. If Amit Shah has guts, then the Home Ministry should form a committee of judges of the High Court or Supreme Court.”
He further said, “It is my belief that riots have broken out in 7 states after Karauli. What was at the root of it? What was the sentiment, and in what form was there a plan to incite riots? If a proper probe is held, all the details will come to the fore and further riots will stop.”
CM Gehlot added that “today they are in power, even then they try to incite fire and they flout the constitution. If they disturb the rule of law, then how can we ignore that. Decisions have to be taken in the public interest. Spare Rajasthan. Let us all do our politics together, but it is not the right of anyone to let innocent people be killed. If they provoke arson and riots break out, we will not tolerate this.”
For the past few weeks, CM Ashok Gehlot has repeatedly alleged that dividing the country on religious and caste lines is part of the BJP's agenda and the people need to understand that. With the Rajasthan CM now openly challenging the Union Home Minister to hold a detailed probe on recent riots across the country, it will be interesting to see how the BJP responds to his latest attack.