All is perfect in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) camp—that's the word from MP Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, who is contesting from the Jhotwara seat in the Rajasthan assembly polls. Speaking to CNBC-TV18’s Santia Gora about the BJP workers' protests over ticket distribution in the poll-bound state, Rathore said all party workers are aligned with the party's ideology and BJP will win the election. The Olympic medal-winning sportsperson-turned-politician added that he welcomed those who were protesting against him receiving a ticket.

Below are the edited excerpts from the interview.

Q: Focusing solely on paper leak instances, between 2011 and 2022, there were over 26 instances of paper leaks. Now, during this time period, the BJP government was also in power for five years, and there were instances of paper leaks during that time as well. So first, why exactly did that happen in the previous government of the BJP? And if the party comes back to power in Rajasthan, how will your government tackle that?

Rathore: Even if I were to accept these statistics that you have given, you said there were 22 paper leaks, including during the BJP government. Nineteen of those paper leaks have happened under the Congress regime, so just see the comparison.

Q: 14 theirs and remaining in the five years of BJP government.

Rathore: No, there were 19 paper leaks in the Congress regime from 2018 to 2023; 19 paper leaks. The point is that they have almost turned it into an industry. And obviously, there is going to be an inquiry because I don't take names here. There are academies run by people belonging to the kith and kin of people in power. And the papers are all being leaked through those academies. So this system is killing the whole potential of young people.

Loss of money, loss of time, loss of faith—is that what you are going to give to the younger population? I mean, they are now making a law just maybe two months before the tenure of the regime ends. But that's ridiculous.

Q: How will you fix this situation if your government is voted back to power?

Rathore: It's very simple; the question papers are not to be leaked, full stop. And so the Rajasthan Public Service Commission (RPSC), which is a recruitment agency, is for recruitment, not for accepting bribes and money, period. That has to be ensured. People who are responsible for it, their heads will roll for it as simple as that. You can make a mistake once or twice, but you have to put a system in place. That can't be sabotaged, and obviously, action is going to be taken not just for paper leaks; it's actually going to be taken for the scam that has happened in Jal Jeevan Mission. For all the illegal mining mafia that's been going on, there are a whole lot of things that have happened here.

Q: Another important issue, that I want to talk about, is women's safety. And unfortunately, Rajasthan has really bad numbers and really poor performance. If I talk about the NCRB’s latest data for 2021, Rajasthan was number two when it came to crime against women. For the last three years, Rajasthan has topped when it comes to rape cases; this is extremely alarming. And as I said in all these years, both the BJP and Congress got a chance to improve the situation. Why couldn't your government improve it in the past, and what is the plan to rectify the situation if voted back to power?

Rathore: So give me one minute to explain this whole thing. Since the time Prime Minister Modi came into power, he has had to ensure the empowerment of women, and he has taken multiple steps. Number one is behavioral change when he spoke about Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao is to bring about a change in the mindset of people, a behavioral change in society. He backed it up with the infrastructure. See the maximum number of rapes were happening because of open defecation. Women would go out late in the night for open defecation and that is when maximum rapes were happening. This is a survey, not my report. He ensured 11.50 crore toilets to come up to ensure safety, security, and health for women. So social behavioral change and infrastructure then he backed it up with rules and regulations.

Any girl below the age of 12 who is raped, there is a provision for the death penalty. He also ensured Fast Track Courts (FTCs). So the Nirbhaya funding was used for creating Fast Track courts all around the states. So see the difference and he did not stop there. He brought in reservations for women in the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF). He didn't stop there; he went on to create reservations in politics as well.

Now see the whole scope of work that he's done to empower women. And again for behavioral change, he ensured that women were marching on the 26 January parade right in front so that people realised, women were flying fighter jets and that people realise that the girl was no less than a boy. Now this is all this change. Now compare it with the Rajasthan government. Zero, zilch, nothing.

Q: But your party also had a chance as in these figures?

Rathore: Are we going back to certain decades? From 2014 onwards, in central government, these steps were taken and the Fast Track courts came in, the money was given around 2018, when our government was changing here. Till 2022, Fast Track courts were not set up in Rajasthan. Can you believe that for so many years? They were only set up in 2022. If you see these statements again, who is inspiring the people who are committing abuses against women?

Q: To be fair, these kinds of insensitive statements come from across party lines—I mean, anti-women statements. But I get the point that you're saying that the legal aspect of it will be strengthened. My next question is, despite all these statistics, whether it's corruption cases, paper leak cases, and the whole Gehlot-Pilot camp, everything, Congress believes that the ongoing infighting in the BJP is something that will make its job easier and will ensure that Congress comes back to power. How do you respond to that?

Rathore: So before I answer this question, I just finished the previous one. You said these kinds of statements come from every political party. But how many have come from the BJP.

How blatant can this statement be by a minister in Vidhan Sabha who says yes, Rajasthan is number one in rapes, and then he turns around and says this is because we are mardo ka pradesh. Can you beat this statement?

Q: I was talking about BJP infighting and how Congress is planning to use that and is confident that this infighting is going to damage the BJP and strengthen their chances.

Rathore: The sort of infighting that is there in Congress has actually resulted in the whole misgovernance of Rajasthan. And this infighting in Congress is not in the last few months; it has been going on for the entire five years.

But we are not in the government; even if we are, we are not in the government. I mean, the people who are responsible for running the state, are they more responsible, or is an opposition party more responsible? So the entire responsibility of running the state was with Congress, and the massive infighting between the Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister—in short, Rajasthan lost out on thousands of crores, human resources and many lives have been lost in terms of women, and that cannot be compared with anything.

Has the fighting stopped? No. You think for five years they fought, and now they have become friends. They are not able to release their list of candidates. They are not able to cut the tickets of all those MLAs whose anti-incumbency is sky-high. They will realise the result once we go into the elections.

In the BJP, whatever little opposition you see is a normal human reaction where people who are aspirants will be unhappy for some time. But the BJP is a party that is very, very disciplined, and we all know that after some time, people fall back in line.

Q: As far as the BJP is concerned, the BJP has issued tickets to seven MPs this time, and you are among them. And out of these seven MPs, four actually are facing protests from the party workers themselves. Talking about your constituency, as in the place you are contesting from Jhotwara, you are also facing resistance from the party workers. How do you look at it if the party workers are supposed to fight for you, or if they are fighting against you? That cannot be a good sign.

Rathore: Now the party workers are all with us. There's only a handful who are loyal to a particular person, perhaps for some personal reasons. The party fights for its ideology. So these are large numbers of party cadres that are all aligned with the party's ideology.

Q: So you are saying all is well in the BJP camp?

Rathore: I am not just saying all is well; all is perfect. We are having a fantastic time. We are winning the election hands down; the opposition is not even able to place a candidate against us and you are saying all is well; no, all is super.

Q: You were shown black flags and all that?

Rathore: I welcomed it, and I went down. Have you even seen the video? This is part of politics. If you're into politics, understand and accept all these things. It can’t be hunky-dory everywhere.

(Edited by : Ajay Vaishnav)

First Published:Oct 30, 2023 8:57 PM IST