Assembly of blunders: Speaker, ministers get their facts wrong in Rajasthan House

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The ongoing Assembly session in Rajasthan seems to have become a centre for blunders being made by the members including the Speaker, bringing embarrassment for the state government.

They are seen making inaccurate statements and tabling wrong facts which have to be withdrawn later. Surprisingly the entire episodes are being telecast live on YouTube and giving them all more eyeballs.

One such controversy was triggered recently over the issue of the demolition of the Salasar Temple gate.

This gate, located on a road leading towards the famous Salasar Balaji Temple, was demolished for widening the road by the state PWD department. However, Speaker CP Joshi in his statement in the Assembly said that the gate on a road leading to Salasar Balaji temple in Churu district was demolished by the Centre.

In his statement, Joshi said, "The idol of Lord Ram was installed there. The way it was brought down is unfortunate, your sentiments will be conveyed to the government of India. This subject will not be discussed in the House," he told deputy leader of opposition Rajendra Rathore when he wanted to raise the issue.

Later, he took his words back and said that the demolition was not carried out by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) but by the state government's PWD.

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The next embarrassment came when the state government had to drop the Gurukul University bill presented in the Assembly in the current session following anomalies in the claims made by the institute.

Rathore claimed that the infrastructure promised by the institute did not exist on the ground. However, the bill claimed it to be spread over 80 acres of land with 155 academic blocks, 62 lecture halls and 38 laboratories.

The Gurukul University Sikar Bill, 2022 sought to incorporate the Gurukul Shikshan Sansthan, Sikar, as a university and was tabled on February 24. On Tuesday, Rajendra Singh Yadav, Minister in charge of Higher Education, was scheduled to move a motion to pass the Bill.

However, Rathore went to the site and found only a vast ground there. In the Assembly, he said "I have been travelling from Jaipur to my home seat Churu via Sikar but I did not see any such university ever."

Hence it was found that the state government had brought a bill to open a private university which existed only on paper. Surprisingly the Higher Education Minister and the government officials came to know that the campus is not even ready on the same day when the bill was to be passed by the government after debate. Thereafter the bill was withdrawn.

Leader of Opposition Gulab Chand Kataria said, "It is unfortunate if the bill of a private university comes to this stage and has to be returned. I have never seen anything like this in my political career of 40 years," he added.

In fact, besides these embarrassing episodes, the state government was also left red faced with the indisciplined speech of the parliamentary minister who made a ‘Mardon ka Pradesh' remark on the floor of the House over the highest number of rapes reported in the country. Later, he too had to apologise in the Assembly.

Replying to a debate in the Assembly for grants to the police and jails departments, Shanti Dhariwal, who is also the cabinet minister for Law and Legal Affairs, said, "We are at number one in rape cases. There's no doubt. Why are we ahead in rape cases?... Rajasthan is a state of men."

Later he too had to say sorry.

As the Assembly proceedings are going live on YouTube, the clippings of all these episodes are going viral bringing embarrassment to the state government as most of the ministers are seen saying sorry.

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