I am a worried man as there is a loss of democratic values and erosion of ethics, says Gehlot in Assembly

The 35-day old political drama in Rajasthan ended with the Ashok Gehlot government winning the trust vote by a huge voice that reverberated in the Vidhan Sabha on Friday. The trust vote also put the curtains down on the rebellion within the party led by Sachin Pilot.

It was Pilot who said during the three-hour debate on the trust motion that he would guard his party with a shield and spear as a brave soldier. He said the party was united and it was committed to the people and the government.

The BJP, which had announced that it would bring a no-confidence motion against the government, changed its mind when the ruling party tabled the trust motion through the parliamentary affairs minister Shanti Kumar Dhariwal.

In his reply after the three-hour historic debate, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot talked about the falling democratic values and the designs and indulgence of the mighty BJP in toppling a democratically-elected government and the use of power and misuse of the various government agencies like the CBI, Income Tax and the Enforcement Directorate to terrorise the people in the toppling game

“I stood against all your ill designs and your (BJP) hunger for power to destabilize my government. Maybe you were successful in Goa and in Madhya Pradesh. But you failed in Rajasthan because we were united to fight against you. When you tried to destabilize the government, a senior MLA of your party and a former Speaker Kailash Meghwal condemned the same. It was a clear hint from a senior party leader, but you gave no heed to the advise,” said Gehlot.

“Your leaders backed you and you adopted all the tactics to destabilize the government, but were you not wrong in trying to pull down a government that was voted to power by the people? You were successful in Madhya Pradesh, but you miserably failed in your endeavour in Rajasthan. Your failure must have irked and disappointed your leaders in Delhi. You failed because we were united like a rock,” said Gehlot.

Gehlot said, “I served as Union minister and was thrice PCC chief and in the 50 years of political life, I am serving as Chief Minister for the third time. But I am a worried man as there is a loss of democratic values and erosion of ethics.”

He said when attempts were made to destabilize the Bhairon Singh Shekhawat government in 1996 when he had gone to the US for heart surgery, he was critical of those who engineered the move to topple the government. He had then told the party’s high command that the Congress should not support the rebels in destabilizing a government whose Chief Minister (Shekhawat) was away for a heart surgery.

.During the reply to the debate, Gehlot was critical of the Governor Kalraj Mishra on the convening of the Assembly. “The Governor was hell-bent on denying us our right to convene the Assembly on some pretext or other as he was under pressure from the BJP leadership, forgetting that he was an Independent person,” he said.

Shanti Dhariwal, the parliamentary affairs minister who tabled the trust vote, won the applause of the House when he quipped “Rajasthan mein na to Shah ki chali na Shehanshak ki chali”.

He said the Opposition was blaming the government for keeping their MLAs in fortified hotels fearing poaching. But he wanted to ask the BJP why 18 of the BJP MLAs were sent to Gujarat? “Were they sent for performing Rasleela?” asked Dhariwal.

In the three hour debate, Opposition members alleged that the government had forgotten the people during COVID-19 and that the ruling party indulged in a power game.

Leader of Opposition Gulab Chand Kataria said that Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot was blaming the BJP for trying to topple the government though there was a political crisis in his own party. He said during the COVID-19 crisis the government forgot the suffering of people who were left to die and there was no one to care about them.