Raje's devotees will have to pray hard now

JAIPUR: Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje has again been caught in a controversy. This time, her ‘devotees’ have been penalised by a Jodhpur court for depicting Raje as the goddess Annapurna.

The court, on a plea filed by Sheetal Kunwar, wife of senior BJP leader and former Union minister, Jaswant Singh, has directed the Rajasthan Police to explain why it has not filed a complaint in connection with the poster showing Raje as the goddess.

The complaint was filed before Judicial Magistrate Hari Vallabh Khatri, who has been relieved from the post following a recent transfer and the case was shifted to another magistrate this morning. Judicial Magistrate Saroj Choudhary ordered the Jodhpur police to register a case and investigate the matter.

Kunwar’s lawyer Deepak Maneriya said, “We had to request the court to ask the police to file a complaint as the police had refused to do so despite our repeated requests since May 25. The complaint has been filed against Hemant Vohra, the temple priest who made the poster, as well as local BJP MLA Suryakanta Vyas, who released the calendar.”

The poster shows former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee as Lord Shiva, BJP leader L K Advani as Lord Brahma and BJP President Rajnath Singh as Lord Vishnu. Rajasthan ministers L N Dave and Pratap Singh Singhvi were portrayed as Kuber and Indra respectively.

Kunwar alleged that the poster has hurt the religious sentiments of people and is a crime under IPC section 295 (I). Political observers, however, are finding a political angle in this case as the issue has been raised by the wife of former Union minister Jaswant Singh who is said to be in the anti-Raje camp. However, the former minister, had said that he had nothing to do with this case.

“My wife is free citizen of India and she has every right to do whatever she wants.” Observers believe that opponents of Raje are trying to corner her on the poster issue.

According to Dr Ram Chandra Saini, a senior political analyst, “Jaswant Singh had openly criticised the chief minister on the way she had handled the Gurjar agitation. He is said to have tried to convince the party high command to remove Vasundhara Raje. He is said to fan dissidence in state BJP. This issue is merely an outcome of Singh’s annoyance.”