Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, July 24: Unruly scenes were witnessed in the Rajasthan Assembly on Monday morning after a former minister tried to put the Ashok Gehlot government to docks brandishing a “red diary” which he claimed contained “explosive materials” against the chief minister but was not allowed to speak.
Helped by the opposition BJP members who rushed to the well of the House in support of Rajendra Singh Gudha, who was sacked last week from the cabinet for levelling serious charges against his own party government, the former minister claimed that he was roughed up by the Congress members for taking on the chief minister.
Gudha was marshalled out of the state assembly after he took on Gehlot trying to present a “red diary” which he claims can be politically explosive. The assembly was adjourned after Gudha and the BJP members created unruly scenes in the House during Zero Hour. The sacked minister tried to re-enter the Assembly forcibly, but was stopped at the entrance by the Congress members who created a wall holding Gudha out of the Assembly hall. He was later suspended from the Assembly for the remainder of the Monsoon Session.
Commotion started after Gudha rushed near Speaker CP Joshi’s chair brandishing a “red diary” in his hand and had an argument with the speaker. The diary was allegedly “recovered” by Gudha in the past during an IT raid on Ashok Gehlot’s associate, Dharmendra Singh Rathore. The sacked former minister says it could “expose” Gehlot.
As Mr Gudha waved the red-coloured diary, the speaker asked him to come to his chamber. After some time, the sacked minister reached near Parliamentary Affairs Minister Shanti Dhariwal and confronted him while he stood to speak.
“I wanted to present my red diary to the Chairman, but he did not allow me to speak. Congress leader Shanti Kumar Dhariwal pushed me and other Congress leaders started fighting with me and took away some pages of the diary. Some Congress leaders kicked and punched me and later threw me out of the Assembly. I was getting calls not to attend the session and that I will be sent to jail soon,” he said.
BJP MLAs created an uproar and rushed to the well of the House over the issue of the “red diary.” The speaker then adjourned the House.
“I was just trying to speak through Shanti Kumar Dhariwal’s mic, but wasn’t allowed to. Around 20-30 MLAs came after me,” he charged. He said he didn’t know where to speak from as he wasn’t allotted a seat as MLA after he was sacked as the minister. BJP leader Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, alleging Congress leaders tried to snatch destroy the red coloured diary, asked why Ashok Gehlot and the state government was so worried about that diary.
Before the House began in the morning, Gudha told reporters that he would “disclose” details about the “red diary” in the assembly. He said the diary contained some “secrets.” He claimed that he had recovered the diary from a raid site on the instructions of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot. “After CM Gehlot asked me, I took away a red diary from a raid site where ED and Income tax were conducting raids,” he said. But he did not say why Gehlot did not demand for the diary from him if it contained such “explosive materials” as claimed by him.
Rajendra Singh Gudha was sacked last week, hours after raising questions in the Assembly on his own government’s success in controlling crimes against women. Reacting to Gudha’s sacking from the state cabinet, Rajasthan Congress chief Govind Singh Dotasra said “Inclusion of a minister or their dismissal is up to a Chief Minister and he acted accordingly. It is the right of the Chief Minister.”
“It is true and should be accepted that we have failed to ensure women’s safety. Instead of Manipur, we should look within ourselves – why atrocities on women have increased in Rajasthan,” Gudha had said. Dotasra also accused the BJP of trying to divert attention from the viral video of Manipur horror by picking one or two incidents from the Congress-ruled states. Gudha had maintained that he had been “punished by the chief minister for speaking the truth.” “I always speak the truth. That is who I am. I follow my conscience. I got punished for speaking the truth,” he has said.
“The sisters and daughters of the Udaipurwati Assembly constituency, who have helped me win the elections, trusted me so that I could respect and protect them. But the way in which newspapers today are flooded with incidents of sexual harassment against our sisters and mothers shows that Rajasthan is number one in atrocities against women,” he added.
Accused of criminal intimidation and kidnapping over a property dispute with a man from his constituency, Gudha earlier this year had hit out at Gehlot saying he was being implicated in a false case. An FIR was registered against Gudha, and others, for allegedly abducting Durga Singh, a ward panchayat member from Kakrana of Sikar district, and taking a blank bank cheque from him. He had said the FIR could not have been registered against him without the knowledge of the Chief Minister.
Gudha was elected on the Bahujan Samaj Party ticket and had then switched over to the Congress. He, of late, appears to have changed loyalties and has been speaking out in favour of Sachin Pilot, who has been locked in a power battle with Gehlot. Gudha has alleged he was being targetted for speaking in favour of Pilot but of late he had been taking anti-Congress stance after Pilot reportedly made up with the party high command recently.
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