Pilot flays Centre, Raje govt.

Rajasthan Pradesh Congress president Sachin Pilot on Friday flayed the “continuing silence” of the ruling BJP leaders on the suicides by debt-ridden farmers and the rising fuel prices. He said the BJP governments at the Centre and in the State were least concerned about the plight of common people reeling under price rise and lawlessness.

Mr. Pilot addressed the booth-level Congress party workers at a ‘Mera Booth, Mera Gaurav’ (my booth, my pride) programme in Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje’s Assembly constituency of Jhalrapatan. He said the “abdication of duty” by the BJP government had increased the responsibility of Congress, for which the “people’s issues were of paramount importance”.

The Congress leader said though the BJP was elected to power on its slogan of reducing inflation, its government at the Centre had made a new record of price rise. “In order to divert people’s attention from the issues directly affecting them, the ruling BJP is dividing them on the basis of religion and caste,” he said.

Mr. Pilot alleged that while agricultural distress was forcing the farmers to kill themselves, the State government was not willing to extend any relief to them. Similarly, the unchecked increase in diesel and petrol prices, which in turn would increase the prices of every commodity, had failed to make any impact on the government, he said.

Mr. Pilot said the booth-level workers would strengthen the Congress in the remote areas and help raise people’s issues at all forums in order to force the government to come up with solutions.