Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Friday sacked state minister Rajendra Singh Gudha hours after he questioned the state government on crimes against women in the Assembly, The Indian Express reported.
Gudha made the statement on Friday afternoon, when other Congress MLAs stormed the Well of the Assembly to protest crimes against women in Manipur. This was two days after media reports about the sexual assault of three Kuki women in Manipur created a nationwide furore.
On Friday, even as other Congress MLAs shouted slogans calling for action in the Manipur case, Gudha said that the Rajasthan government should introspect on its own actions. “The truth is that we have failed to provide security to women,” he said, according to NDTV. “The way atrocities against women have gone up in Rajasthan, we should introspect instead of raising the issue of Manipur.”
This led to chants of “Shame! Shame!” from the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party. Leader of Opposition Rajendra Rathore remarked that Gudha had exposed the government.
“The Constitution states that when one minister speaks, it means the entire government is speaking,” he said. “The minister has exposed the government. I congratulate him, but it is a shameful thing.”
On Friday evening, a statement from the Raj Bhavan said that Gehlot recommended Gudha’s expulsion as a minister, and Governor Kalraj Mishra accepted the recommendation.
Commenting on the action against him, Gudha said that he paid the price for speaking the truth. “I’m not surprised and had no expectations from them,” he said, according to The Indian Express. “I would only like to say that the law and order in Rajasthan is bad … the way they have lodged fake cases (against me). I will tell everything on Monday.”
Gudha is considered to be part of the camp led by Congress leader Sachin Pilot, and has been speaking against the government led by Gehlot for over a year. At a rally in May, he had said: “Our government has crossed all limits of corruption. In Karnataka, the charge was 40 per cent [commission] but our government here has gone beyond that.”
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