Jaipur: Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok
Gehlot on Friday accused Opposition BJP for making "false"
allegations of corruption against him, and said he would not
remain in chair "for a second" if charges of favouritism were
proven.
"If any charge that my family members benefitted in
any way from our government is proven right, I will not remain
Chief Minister for a second," Gehlot said.
He said his opposition BJP, when in power in the state,
was in a muddle of corruption charges, and it would do better
to look into the track record of its own government.
Gehlot`s first public comments on the issue came at
the State Convention of NSUI here, a week after media reports
said that the Rajasthan government had awarded contracts to a
firm in which his son is employed.
Reacting to the report, former Chief Minister and leader
of the Opposition Vasundhara Raje had said that the charges
had brought the corrupt nature of the state government out in
the public domain.
"If a particular company received contracts worth Rs
110 crore during my government, it had received contracts
worth Rs 300 crore during the previous government through
tenders," he said rubbishing reports that his government
favoured the firm where his son works as a legal consultant.
"I replied to the charges when they were raised and I
am happy that even the media in general did not give much
credence to them," Gehlot said.
Gehlot said the Raje government was itself facing
several charges of corruption.
"Their own people have accused them or wrongdoings. It
was during their tenure that police fired on protesters during
the Gujjar agitation. There has been no such incident during
our government, and they do not seem happy about this," he
said.
"Throughout my political life I have tried to
make sure that my family members, my wife and children do not
even misuse the official vehicle provided to me," he said.
Gehlot had earlier refuted the allegations, but he was
speaking on the issue for the first time from a public
platform.
Gehlot also used the occasion to attack BJP, whose
leaders he said had not even "hurt a finger" during India`s
freedom movement.
"Where were they when (the Congress was) fighting for
the Independence. Everyone knows their black history... They
couldn`t even keep the Jan Sangh from breaking into pieces and
today they pretend to be the flag bearers of a national
movement," he said.
PTI
