Sachin Pilot said “Rajasthan has always been a peaceful state”.
New Delhi:
Congressional Sachin Pilot today blamed the BJP for the recent communal controversies in Rajasthan and said the party must stop “playing with people’s feelings”.
“Rajasthan has always been a peaceful state. The people have lived in harmony and friendship. We must stop the forces that cause these clashes,” Mr Pilot told DailyExpertNews in an exclusive interview.
“Our friends in the opposition need to understand that they shouldn’t play politics about this. They need to understand that the discourse should be about unemployment, inflation, peasant issues. I don’t think they will continue to be successful in trying to take people’s attention to suffer from these problems,” he added.
When told that there is also a grassroots for these feelings and people are getting emotional about these issues, Mr Pilot said: “Yes, people are getting emotional. But lemons are sold for Rs 300 per kilo. Cooking gas costs Rs 1,000 per cylinder. Inflation has to bring it down. You can’t get votes just by playing with people’s feelings. I don’t think the country benefits from that.”
Rajasthan, where elections will be held next year, has recently witnessed a series of incidents with communal undertones.
The latest took place on Wednesday, when internet went down in the city of Bhilwara over tensions over the murder of a 22-year-old Hindu man, allegedly by a Muslim, over a personal dispute. Some right-wing groups called for a bandh over the murder.
There have been communal problems in Karauli, Alwar and Jodhpur in recent weeks.
Asked about the Congress’s chances in the state that has never voted in the incumbent party in nearly three decades, Mr Pilot said: “We now want to break that tradition. Not only in Rajasthan, but also in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh” – – states where Congress had formed the government in 2018.
When asked how Congress will achieve this, Mr Pilot said: “This has to happen. Because we survived the last (such) elections with only 20 seats. This time we did a good job. I don’t mind that to say if we can take everyone and go among the people, we will surely win”.