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We are fighting elections on the basis of our development works: Dotasra
Cong state unit chief Dotasra dismissed talks of party fissures ahead of Rajasthan polls and said that they would go into the contest as a united front.
In the run up to the crucial Rajasthan assembly elections, Congress’s state unit chief Govind Singh Dotasra brushed aside talks of fissures in the party, asserting that they will go into the electoral contest as a united front. In an interview to Saubhadra Chatterji and Chetan Chauhan, Dostara hit out at the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accusing it of battling an internal rift and being more focused on the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Edited excerpts
Why is ticket distribution being delayed in Rajasthan? Congress hasn’t come out with a list yet.
There’s no delay. The BJP has announced just 41 seats. We have finalised candidates for almost all seats. There is agreement on all seats. So, whenever the party wants to release the list of candidates, it can do so. We will announce our candidates for 200 seats before the BJP. Our preparations are better than theirs.
If you look at Rajasthan politics over the past two-three years, the CM Ashok Gehlot vs Sachin Pilot fight and the repeated leaks of government recruitment exam papers have dominated the news.
As a deputy chief minister, Sachin and the chief minister (Gehlot) had some differences of opinion. But all the issues were resolved after the party high command spoke to them. For the past 12 months, they’ve had no problems. Now, we are all together.
About the paper leak, this is a national problem, and not a new one. There is no state or central government examination —be it railway or banking— where papers haven’t been leaked. The central government has been working on it for almost 10 years now. There should have been a strict rule to curb this by now, but the Centre hasn’t come up with anything. When the BJP was in power in Rajasthan, question papers were leaked at least 11 times.
Our government caught the paper leaks first before it went to the courts. Our government caught the culprits and took action and we introduced a strict rule. We got the tests redone. During Vasundhara (Raje) ji’s time, children were on a hunger strike for 17 days. Children tried everything but they (BJP government) didn’t announce a retest, and whoever got the leaked papers got selected. But, during our regime, we first cancelled the examinations and ordered double tests — one for selection and one for screening.
The BJP is trying to fight the Rajasthan elections in the name of the PM. Even in Madhya Pradesh, they want to fight the elections under Modi’s name. What is the Congress’ strategy? Will it be beneficial or not?
We will fight on the basis of our work. Our slogan is: “kaam kiya dil se, Congress sarkar phir se”. We are fighting the elections on the basis of our development works, our good governance and the guarantees to the people. The BJP doesn’t have any issues because the NDA government hasn’t done anything in the last nine years. Whatever Modi ji promised, he hasn’t fulfilled. Be it MSP, ending corruption, tackling terrorism or fake currencies — he hasn’t fixed anything.
Every five years, the government changes in Rajasthan. How do you expect to retain power?
Our people feel that they faced losses after changing the government last time. So, when the Gehlot government has introduced such good schemes, they don’t feel like changing it. They know that the BJP has no goals, and no face. Our PM has visited Rajasthan maybe six-seven times, and less than 15,000 people gathered to see him. Earlier, the PM would draw a crowd of 100,000-150,000 people. People have started realising that the Congress government has fulfilled its promises and the BJP didn’t.
Former Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje has always been an important factor in Rajasthan. But the BJP is not using her in the campaign. How do you think this will impact the polls?
The BJP is not preparing for this election, they’re gearing up for 2024. I’ll tell you why. They’re scared that if Vasundhara wins, she will be a threat for them as it will be her third time. So, they have given up on the Rajasthan elections and have started preparing for 2024 elections.
The BJP has fielded 8 MPs as candidates in the assembly polls. An MP is always considered a powerful candidate.
The BJP knows it will not win in Rajasthan, and wants to deny Lok Sabha tickets to these candidates. That’s why these MPs have been fielded. You tell me, an MP who couldn’t do anything in 10 years, what can he do as an MLA? MP comes and waves at the crowd and goes away. If I am an MLA but I contest panchayat elections, it will be difficult for me.
Communal incidents in Rajasthan have been happening for five years now. There was also an attempt to polarise the Muslims and minorities.
Some incidents take place during the tenure of every government. But the BJP turns every problem into a Hindu-Muslim issue to strengthen their vote bank. But we’ve done so much damage-control this time that they couldn’t do anything at all. Be it the incident in Udaipur, Kama, Jaipur or Jodhpur. The BJP hasn’t been able to divide the people on communal lines because of our good governance.
The BJP has swept Rajasthan twice over the past two Lok Sabha polls. How can you stop the BJP wave in the 2024 polls?
When the NDA came to power in 2014, there was a narrative against the UPA government. Modi was able to create an impression. In the next election, the BJP campaigned over Pulwama and Pakistan and the people got carried away. Now, the people are saying that he hasn’t delivered on his promises.
ABOUT THE AUTHORSaubhadra ChatterjiSaubhadra Chatterji is Deputy Political Editor at the Hindustan Times. He writes on both politics and policies.Read More
- ABOUT THE AUTHORChetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More
