Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders on Monday attacked Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot and accused him of indulging in appeasement politics in connection with two separate cases of drowning.
They targeted Gehlot over his two tweets on the incidents in Phalodi town of Jodhpur and Ramsinghpur area of Sriganganagar district.
In a tweet on the Jodhpur incident, in which two people died, Gehlot mentioned the names of the victims [who were reportedly Muslims] and announced a compensation of ₹5 lakh to the families under Chiranjeevi accident health insurance scheme.
On Sunday, he condoled the death of five children who drowned in a farm pond in Ramsinghpur. In the tweet, he neither announced the names, nor any financial assistance to the families, which the BJP questioned by saying that he is not the CM of one particular religion, but of the entire state.
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“There are certain criteria for giving assistance during natural calamity, but the state government has started doing discrimination in this also,” deputy leader of opposition Rajendra Rathore said.
“I saw the CM’s two tweets. In the Phalodi incident, he announced ₹5 lakh on the death of Rahmatullah and one more. On the Ramsinghpur incident, he expressed condolences, but did not announce a single penny as assistance. This raises questions. Why does he do vote-bank politics in everything? It is unfortunate…why such double standards?” he asked.
“He is the chief minister of the entire state. He is also our CM and not of one particular religion. Assistance in Phalodi issue is good, but those who were killed in the Ramsinghpur incident are also poor and the government should think about them also,” he added.
Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, who is the sitting Jodhpur MP, shared a collage of both the tweets of Gehlot and said the CM extended condolences in one incident, while compensation along with condolences in the other. “This is what the Congress thinks of secularism, which is being followed in letter and spirit in Rajasthan,” he tweeted.
Meanwhile, the CM’s officer on special duty Lokesh Sharma tweeted that the death of five children is tragic. “It is wrong and insensitive to compare the Sriganganagar incident with the similar kind of incident that occurred in Phalodi,” he tweeted in response to the BJP’s allegations.
