Over a controversial appointment to the Rajasthan Public Service Commission, chief minister Ashok Gehlot has found himself in the political crossfire of the state’s two prominent communities, just ahead of the assembly elections.
Kesari Singh Rathore, 46, a retired army colonel appointed to the RPSC on October 9, has been termed “prejudiced” by the state’s Jat leaders over his social media posts targeting the community. Under fire from the Jats, Gehlot took responsibility for the appointment on Friday, and said Rathore’s remarks were “condemnable, hurtful and unfortunate”.
Speaking to the media on Friday, Gehlot said the appointment “should have never happened”. “Anybody who tweets against an individual or a caste is not acceptable at all… This (appointment) should have never happened. I have never met him or spoken to him on the phone. We tried to call him and discuss it, but he is not coming. Unfortunately, this incident occurred and I am responsible for this. I deliberately asked for biodata of people with army background (for selection)… There was also greed that why the Makrana seat should go to waste.”
Rathore is from Makrana and is said to wield influence among the youth for his controversial speeches and social work.
The chief minister hinted that the Congress stood a chance to wrest back the Makrana constituency in the upcoming assembly elections. The BJP won the constituency in the last two elections.
Earlier in the day, the chief minister wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that Rathore's remarks had “pained” him.
एक तरफ हमारी सरकार ने 3 लाख भर्ती निकालने का ऐतिहासिक कार्य किया जो शायद देश में सर्वाधिक है और दूसरी तरफ पेपर लीक की कुछ घटनाएं सामने आईं (अधिकांश राज्यों में ऐसी ही स्थिति बनी हुई है, आर्मी और ज्यूडिशियरी तक में पेपर लीक हो गए)। ये सोचकर सरकार ने प्रयास किया कि आर्मी बैकग्राउंड…
— Ashok Gehlot (@ashokgehlot51) October 13, 2023
Along with Rathore, the state government appointed two other members to the RPSC on October 9. On the same day, the Election Commission announced the polls dates for five states, including Rajasthan.
Since the appointment, hashtags like — #Jatiwadi_KesariSingh_Ko_Hatao (remove casteist Kesari Singh) and #ThanksCongress4Kesari — have been trending on social media.
Rajasthan Jat Sabha has termed Rathore “casteist”, “feudalistic” and “prejudiced”, and demanded that the government revoke his appointment. Gurjars have also joined in to condemn Rathore.
A day after Rathore’s appointment, Rajasthan Jat Mahasabha wrote to Rajasthan governor Kalraj Mishra, saying that the appointment will raise questions “on the reputation and impartiality of the commission”.
The letter said, “The post of RPSC member shapes the future of youths. It is a must for the members that they are impartial, upright, fair and just. The appointment will raise questions on the reputation and impartiality of the commission...Therefore, it’s our request that such an appointment, of such a controversial man, on a constitutional post be revoked.”
Reacting to Gehlot’s tweet, Rajasthan Jat Mahasabha president Rajaram Meel reiterated their demand for Rathore’s resignation on grounds of morality. He said on X that the chief minister himself had “conceded that he was hurt” over Rathore’s “hateful statements”.
Before Gehlot issued the statement, Rajasthan Congress in-charge Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa told Newslaundry that he “had received some messages” from party leaders on Rathore’s appointment. “We will discuss the issue with the CM and how such an appointment was made tomorrow (Friday)… It’s wrong to appoint such a person to the constitutional post. In such a place (RPSC), a person with integrity is required,” Randhawa said.
Under the Congress government, the RPSC has been in the news for paper leaks, and allegations of bribery against some members, who have since been removed. At present, some members of the commission are facing probe in the paper leak cases. In 2021, three relatives of Congress president Govind Singh Dotasara were selected by the RPSC. All of them received identical marks, which spurred allegations that they were favoured.
Rajput community lauds appointment
In Kesari Singh Rathore’s appointment to the RPSC, Rajasthan’s minister of state, Dharmendra Singh Rathore, a close aide of Gehlot, is said to have been instrumental. On his Facebook page, the MoS congratulated and wished Rathore and the other two new members of the commission.
Amid the Jats’ resentment, the state’s Rajput community has lauded Rathore’s appointment. Shree Rashtriya Rajput Karni Sena “thanked” Gehlot for the move. “After his 21-year army service, he has been continuously working for the society. By selecting such a yeoman, you (Gehlot) have strengthened his glorious image,” the organisation said in a statement.
An RSS-affiliated organisation of former army personnel too welcomed the move. In a letter to Gehlot, Akhil Bharatiya Poorva Sainik Seva Parishad wrote: “It is a proud moment for us that your government has recommended colonel Kesari Singh as a member of the Rajasthan Public Service Commission.”
Meanwhile, the controversy has even caused a split within communities. Newslaundry learned that different organisations of the same community were divided on Rathore’s appointment. Rajasthan Meghwal Samaj, for instance, has demanded that Rathore be removed from the RPSC, while Meghwal Samaj Samiti and Rajasthan Meghwal Parishad have stood by him.
In Rajasthan, the Jat community comprises 10-13 percent of the state’s total population, and is the largest community in the state. But the Jat votes, usually, are divided between the BJP and the Congress.
Until 1998, the Jats had traditionally supported the Congress. After their leader Parsaram Maderna lost out to Gehlot in the CM race, a section of the Jat voters subsequently shifted their loyalty to the BJP.
Meanwhile, the Rajput community has traditionally voted for the saffron party.
In 2018, however, the then Vasundhara Raje government faced Rajput ire over an alleged fake encounter of gangster Anandpal Singh, a Rajput. At the time, anti-incumbency slogans gained popularity. Some of those were “kamal ka phool, hamari bhool” (Lotus is our mistake) and “Modi tere se baer nahi, Vasundhara teri kher nahi” (Modi, we have no complaints against you, but we won’t spare Vasundhara).
Angst among Rajputs was one of the major factors for the BJP’s then electoral debacle.
In the last assembly polls, 18 Jats leaders from Congress went to the assembly, while the BJP had 10 Jat representatives. Overall, there were 34 Jat MLAs in the 200-strong Rajasthan assembly. As many as 16 Rajput leaders were elected as MLAs in 2018.
Political ambitions, controversial social media presence
Born in Nagaur district’s Makrana, Rathore served in the army’s missile division before taking voluntary retirement in 2021.
Since then, he has highlighted the economic backwardness in Makrana – that has persisted despite the city’s popularity for its marble, held local MLAs accountable, and championed the causes of “mool or bona fide OBCs” and girls’ education.
Rathore is also pursuing PhD on Buddhism and Bhimrao Ambedkar, and emphasises that Ambedkar should have been the first prime minister of India.
In his interviews before his appointment to the Rajasthan Public Service Commission, the former army official said that he wants to contest the assembly elections from Makrana, and also promised to donate his MLA salary towards social work. His associates told Newslaundry that Rathore was lauded for his efforts towards “social work” during his service with the Assam Rifles in Nagaland.
He has featured on TV news debates too. As per local media reports, Rathore has filed over 300 RTI applications, mainly seeking information on government jobs in the OBC category.
Sporting a handlebar moustache and a fedora cap, Rathore’s social media presence is evocative. Many of his Instagram reels show him riding a jeep in the desert. In one particularly striking video, he emerges from the sunroof of a white SUV with folded hands, leading a cavalcade of white sleek SUVs.
Many of his social media posts feature vexed songs on “35 kaums” (communities), perceivably leaving out the Jat community. In local parlance, “36 kaums” encapsulate all sections of the society. He has also suggested sub-categorisation of the OBC quota to “stop the loot” of government jobs.
While Rathore has deactivated his social media accounts now, most of his purported references to the Jat community on social media are subtle but conspicuous.
One of his Facebook posts says that a certain community has usurped the benefits for the “mool OBC”. It then asks “who?” The post read: “Who has robbed 83 castes — Kumhar, Mali, Khati, Saini, Vaishnav, Luhar, Soni, Ravana, Charan etc — of government jobs and suppressed the truth? Who?”
In another social media post, he wrote that the community which was given OBC reservation “between 1995 and 1999” has occupied a majority of government jobs within the quota.
Notably, the Jat community was given the OBC status in Rajasthan in 1999 by the then Gehlot government. In the same year, then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee vowed to include Jats in the central OBC list — a promise fulfilled later.
Meanwhile, in another social media post, Rathore expressed “shame” that one “land owning” community – purportedly referring to Jats – which constituted “only one-sixth of Nagaur district’s population” has dominated the district politics.
In a post on X, Rathore also slammed the Gurjar community’s claim that ninth century king Mihir Bhoj was from the Gurjar community. Gurjars and Rajput lay claim to Mihir Bhoj’s legacy. Ram Prasad Dhabai, president of the Akhil Bharatiya Gurjar Mahasabha (Rajasthan), demanded resignation of Rathore for creating “animosity” in society. “Such an appointment may cost the party dearly in the elections. It should steer clear of such decisions,” he told Newslaundry.
Earlier, Rathore had attacked Rajasthan Congress president Govind Singh Dotasara, former education minister, over “objectionable content” related to Maharana Pratap in a text book. Subsequently, in a video, the retired army official reportedly called Dotasara “impotent” and said “not even the next 8-10 generations of Dotasara’s people can diminish the legacy of the Rajput king”.
After his appointment to the RPSC, Rathore issued a statement saying that in this constitutional post, he did not “have any religion or caste”. In a Facebook post, he wrote: “Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar’s constitution will be my guiding principle while working for this constitutional post. My comments in social and political programmes were given in the context of the prevalent circumstance.”
Newslaundry tried to reach out to Rathore on the controversies surrounding him. But he was reportedly “unwell”, said his team, branded as ‘Team Kesari’. They then said that “his mobile phone number was out of range”.
On Saturday, the team told Newslaundry that Rathore was “on medical leave till October 21”.
A source close to Rathore said he has been asked to resign from the RPSC. The state government cannot remove him now as the model of conduct – effective from the day of the poll’s announcement– prohibits any government decision.
Congress and BJP in a bind
While the BJP has called Rathore’s RPSC appointment order a violation of the Election Commission’s model code of conduct, it has steered clear of criticising the former army official over his views on Jats.
On October 9, leader of opposition in Rajasthan assembly Rajendra Rathore posted on X that the state government was giving freebies by “suddenly” announcing their “beloved as members” of boards and commissions.
“The chief minister knows fully well that he will not regain his lost mandate by constituting boards and announcing popular schemes,” he wrote on X, without commenting on Rathore’s views.
Rajasthan BJP spokesperson Himanshu Sharma skirted the question on whether Rathore was discriminatory, and instead stressed that the notification about his appointment was issued after the model code of conduct came into effect, and thereby, violated the poll guidelines.
Speaking to Newslaundry, Sharma said: “Arun Singhji (Rajasthan BJP in-charge) has already in a press conference said that he will approach the state election commission over the model code of conduct violation.”
Hemant Kumar Gera, principal secretary at the department of personnel, said “no comment” when Newslaundry enquired whether the RPSC appointment notification was issued after the model code of conduct.
Undeniably, the Congress has found itself on a spot with divergent views on the controversy around Rathore. In a video message, Rajasthan University Students’ Union president Niraj Choudhary, close to Congress leader Sachin Pilot, said that “youths are scared” by the appointment of an “unjust person” and asked the government to seek his resignation.
A source in the Congress party said that senior Jat leaders have also threatened to resign from the party.
On the contrary, a Congress party member, close to Gehlot, dismissed talks about any resentment among Jat voters. “If a person is selected for a position by the ruling party, does this mean their community votes could be transferred to it? But he is somebody who has gained fame because of his nuisance… We should have done a background check on him.”
The source further said, “There is a big question mark on intelligence as to how such a person can be appointed… But there is nothing else to add as the chief minister has already said that the decision was ‘condemnable, hurtful and unfortunate’.”
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