Rajasthan Sports Minister Ashok Chandna on Monday launched a scathing attack on former Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot after shoes were allegedly thrown by the latter’s supporters at a mass meeting attended by both BJP and Congress leaders.
“If Sachin Pilot becomes chief minister by throwing a shoe at me then it should be done soon because today I don’t feel like fighting. The day I come to fight then there will be none left only one and I don’t want it,” the minister said in a tweet.
The shoe-throwing incident occurred during an event held to mark the immersion of the ashes of Colonel Kirori Singh Bainsla, a Gurjar leader who led several agitations in Rajasthan for the reservation of government jobs and educational institutions. (Also read | On Rajasthan Minister Ashok Chandna’s “Release me…” tweet, CM said this)
BJP MP and Lok Sabha Chairman Om Birla, BJP State Chairman Satish Poonia, Congress MP and Industry Minister Shakuntala Rawat and Sports Minister Ashok Chandna were among those present at the meeting .
However, Pilot, who also belongs to the Gurjar community, was not there. As soon as the Congress leaders took to the stage, Pilot’s supporters in the crowd, upset that the former Deputy Chief Minister would not have been invited to the show, began to shout and brandishing slogans “Sachin Pilot Zindabad”. Some of them even threw shoes at the stage, PTI reported. The shoes did not come into contact with anyone as they fell short of the dais.
The police had to be called to control the situation.
Following the incident, Chandna tweeted: “Today a wonderful sight was seen – When Rajendra Rathod, (then a cabinet member) who ordered the murder of 72 people took the stage, was applauded and shoes were thrown at those whose family members went to jail during the ‘Gurjar reservation’ unrest.”
“Family members of the martyrs were sitting on the platform the shoes were thrown on, at least they should have been taken care of,” he said in another tweet.
(With PTI inputs)