Raj CM Gehlot cites ACB raids on corrupt officers to dismiss Pilot’s charge of ‘inaction’

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Wednesday cited Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) raids on corrupt officers to dismiss his former deputy Sachin Pilot’s charge of inaction in cases of corruption during the previous BJP dispensation.

He side-stepped questions at a press conference on Pilot’s protest, saying that his government’s focus was on easing inflation and nothing else is going to distract him from it.

“Do you know the number of raids carried out by the Anti-Corruption Bureau across the country? How many people, including four-five IAS, IPS (officers), have been caught here? Has this happened anywhere in India?” Gehlot said responding to a question on Pilot’s charge.

In reply to another question on Pilot’s protest, Gehlot said, “Our aim is to ease inflation. This is our only focus and we are not going to deviate from it.” Congress leader Pilot on Tuesday sat on a fast in Jaipur, piling pressure on his own party by targeting the Ashok Gehlot government for “inaction” in alleged cases of corruption when the BJP ran the state.

With his fast, Pilot defied the Congress central leadership’s warning that the move which came just months before the assembly polls was “anti-party.”

Gehlot and Pilot have been in a power tussle in the state since the Congress formed the government in December 2018.

Reacting to a question that while he is focusing on easing inflation, the BJP is raising communal issues, Gehlot said: “My aim is Mission 2030 and easing inflation is the first step towards it. Who is doing what, we are not bothered about it.”

Under the mission, the government aims to make Rajasthan the top state by 2030. He said that Rajasthan is in a leadership position in the country with regard to public welfare initiatives and the All India Congress Committee (AICC) has shared it on social media recently.