Sachin Pilot questions Rajasthan government on paper leak again

Mr. Pilot also questioned political appointments being given to government officers after their retirement.

Continuing with his tirade on paper leak during a recent teachers’ recruitment exam, former Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot on Wednesday asked how the papers supposedly kept in the vaults had reached the candidates without the complicity of officials. “Was it magic or something else?” Mr. Pilot said.

Mr. Pilot raised a question mark on the way the Congress government had handled the repeated instances of paper leak at the third of his public meetings being held in different parts of the State this week. The rally, named Kisan Sammelan, was organised at Gudha in Jhunjhunu district.

Earlier this week, Mr. Pilot had said that the masterminds of the paper leak episode should be brought to book, instead of the arrest of “petty brokers”. Responding to his charge, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said at a Chintan Shivir here on Tuesday that those arrested were the “real masterminds” and no officers or politicians were involved in the crime.

Mr. Pilot said it was impossible that no official was complicit. “Somebody or the other has to be responsible. Action must be taken by fixing responsibility for this,” Mr. Pilot said, with the audience cheering on his barb about “magic” being used to leak the papers. The remark was apparently directed at Mr. Gehlot, who hails from a magicians’ family.

Mr. Pilot, who was sacked as the Deputy CM and Pradesh Congress president after his failed rebellion in 2020, also questioned political appointments being given to government officers after their retirement. “Senior officers, who retire at 5 in the evening, are appointed to important posts at 12 midnight,” he said.

The former Deputy CM, who represents Tonk constituency in the State Assembly, said the party workers who shed blood and sweat to form the government were still waiting for recognition. “The Congress workers should get the priority in appointments. If the officers are also to be appointed, a decent ratio should be fixed for it,” he said.