Rajasthan BJP chief C P Joshi attacks Gehlot over handling of 2008 Jaipur serial blasts case
KOTA: Newly appointed Rajasthan BJP chief C P Joshi on Monday attacked Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, alleging that the failure of his government to put up a strong legal team led to the acquittal of the accused in the 2008 Jaipur serial blasts case.
Joshi asked what was the reason and under "whose pressure he did not deploy even a single legal counsel" in the case.
On Wednesday, the Rajasthan High Court acquitted four accused who were convicted by a special court in 2019 for the serial blasts on May 13, 2008 in Jaipur that left 71 people dead and 185 injured.
Later, Chief Minister Gehlot had said the government would file a Special Leave Petition (SLP) in this matter in the Supreme Court.
Joshi said the terrorists had at least 18 lawyers defending them "meanwhile, his AAG was not present there? Whose pressure was it".
"When he had to save his government", Gehlot deployed top lawyers, said Joshi who was on his maiden visit to Kota, a saffron bastion in Hadouti region, after assuming charge as the state BJP chief.
"Who were those he (CM Ashok Gehlot) wanted to please by not calling any counsel in the serial blasts case," Joshi said.
Replying to queries, the BJP leader said Gehlot had been speaking against the Rashtriya Swamsevak Sangh (RSS) to save his government and to please his party leaders in Delhi.
"Ashok Gehlot called doctors, who are revered by all, 'gaddar' (traitors). However, he had even called his own party colleague Sachin Pilot a 'gaddar'," Joshi said.
Gehlot also "supported demand for Khalistan", he alleged.
During his recent visit to Kota, Gehot had alleged that 4-5 doctors who had links with RSS were behind the doctors' stir against the Right To Heath Bill and had called them traitors.
Joshi was given a rousing welcome at several places by party workers.
There was some commotion as three workers slipped from a crowded stage at the Kunhari petrol pump in the city but no major injury was reported.
Referring to Congress-in-charge Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa's remark, Joshi said, "Those who gave a call to kill(Prime Minister) Modi have died and crores of people of the country are standing with him (Modi) as his strength."
Joshi also refuted claims of factional fighting in the state BJP.
"Entire Rajasthan and country are now a bastion of the BJP and the lotus is blooming in almost every state," he said.
At a meeting in Kota, Joshi called upon the party workers to keep up their enthusiasm till the state election later this year to dislodge the Congress government.
The people of the state would not forgive the state government that restricted several religious processions, Joshi said.
Meanwhile, former BJP state president Arun Chaturvedi said the state government should stop the pretense of providing justice to the victims and instead file a strong appeal in the Supreme Court in the Jaipur blasts case.
The government is doing politics of appeasement, he alleged.