With the change of government in Rajasthan, the old decisions of the Raje government are being continuously revoked. On Saturday, the Ashok Gehlot cabinet held its first meeting and resolved to review all the decisions made by the Raje government in the last six months of her tenure.
The Information and public relations minister Raghu Sharma said, “Yeh parampara BJP govenrment ne daali thee, hamaree sarkar bhee 6 mahinon ke faisolon kee samkeesha karegee. [The BJP started this tradition. So our government will also review the decisions taken in the last six months]
The newly formed Congress government of Rajasthan seems to be in a reversal mode. The Ashok Gehlot cabinet has decided to remove the photograph of BJP ideologue Deendayal Upadhyaya from the letterhead of the government stationery. The letterheads will continue to carry the picture of the Ashok Pillar.
The Congress government has decided to change the uniform of government schools and it has also prepared to change the color of the bicycles awarded to talented girl students.
The Rajasthan School Education Minister Govind Singh Dotasra said that the state government will review textbooks and other reference material which were revised by the previous Raje government. He also asserted that roles of national icons like Mahatma Gandhi and former Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru will be restored. The Congress government of the state will also constitute a committee of historians to review the changes made to the school syllabus under the previous BJP government.
The incumbent state government would also move an amendment in the state assembly to end previous Vasundhara Raje government’s decision which allowed only those with minimum educational qualifications to contest the panchayat and local body elections. The previous government introduced education criteria under which the contestant required to have a minimum qualification of secondary education (Class X) in order to contest municipal zila parishad or panchayat samiti polls. To contest the sarpanch elections, the eligibility criteria for general category candidates was to have cleared Class VIII, and for contestants belonging to SC/ST category, it was to clear class V. Also, it was mandatory for the candidates to have a functional toilet at their respective residences in order to contest the local body elections.
The other decisions of the BJP government that were reversed by the Congress cabinet on Saturday include the reopening of Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar Law University and the Haridev Joshi University of Journalism and Mass Communication founded by the Gehlot government during its last tenure.
According to media reports, the newly elected Congress government in Rajasthan is considering to revoke the Bhamashah Yojana, a flagship scheme introduced by the previous BJP government under Vasundhara Raje. Bhanwarlal Meghwal, a Cabinet Minister in Rajasthan has stated that the government is considering to scrap down this flagship scheme. But, the reason for revoking the welfare scheme is not clear and it surely appears to have been carried out of vendetta politics.
For more details: Ashok Gehlot government in Rajasthan mulls to revoke Bhamashah Yojana
Such quick reversals on the part of Congress Party give an impression that it is totally indulged in petty vendetta politics instead of being engaged in the politics of development and progress.