Pilot takes potshots at his bête noire, CM Gehlot, this time over the paper leaks scam

The truce between Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and his archrival Sachin Pilot seem to be evaporating, with the latter addressing rallies and even attacking his own party’s Government in the state. At a rally on Monday, Pilot, who served as Deputy CM under Gehlot, insisted on the arrest of the big fish behind the recent paper leaks, not just small-time middlemen. Sometimes question papers are leaked, sometimes exams are cancelled, Pilot said, adding that it is very painful and distressing. Children and their parents go through so much trouble. Students toil for their exams. “I hope the government acts against the big fish instead of going after the small-time touts.” The Gehlot Government in Rajasthan used bulldozers to demolish a coaching institute allegedly run by the main accused in the question paper leak scandal; the examination was for the recruitment of second-grade teachers. It’s a typical scam; you can predict what everyone will say. The Bharatiya Janata Party talked about “betrayal” of the candidates and demanded a CBI inquiry. Pilot appears to be trying to embarrass the administration under bête noir, Gehlot. What is conspicuous here is the Congress top leadership’s indifferent attitude to the big scam that can hurt its electoral prospects in the state Assembly poll which is 10 months away.

This is despite the fact that Rajasthan is the biggest state in which the grand old party is in power; loss in the desert state — which, like Himachal Pradesh, is known to vote out the

incumbent in Assembly polls — should bother the Gandhi family. That, however, doesn’t seem to be the case. Rahul Gandhi, who appears to have attained nirvana, is too engrossed in his Bharat Jodo Yatra to be disturbed by such mundane matters as dissidence in the party. Sonia Gandhi is not in the pink; and Priyanka Vadra, who many in the party thought had the charisma, is yet to exhibit her political acumen, if she has any. Meanwhile dissidence in Rajasthan festers badly. Unfortunately for the GOP, infighting among top leaders is a big problem in other states as well. Rahul and others need to acknowledge the fact that while national unity and social harmony are laudable ideas, cohesion in the party is also a prerequisite for revival. The mundane cannot be ignored for the sake of the esoteric.