MRS Vasundhara Raje Sindhia of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took oath as the chief minister of Rajasthan on December 13, 2013, in front of the Vidhan Sabha building, after the BJP got 163 seats in the house of 200 members. This oath ceremony was also attended by BJP national president Rajnath Singh and prime minister aspirant Narendra Modi. SAME OLD STORY OF MINISTRY FORMTION Mrs Vasundhara Raje Sindhia later formed her ministry of 12 members, all of which were old faces except two. The inclusion of two Rajputs, two Jats, two Vaishyas and one member each from the dalit, tribal, Brahmin and minority communities in the cabinet told the rest of the story --- of how the BJP played the caste card in the formation of the ministry. Vasundhara Raje sprang a surprise upon the political observers by including Gulab Chand Kataria and Kailash Meghwal who were once her known political opponents. Also, she seemed to have sent a message to others by excluding Ghanshyam Tiwari who won his assembly seat by the highest margin. Significantly, two members of her cabinet of ministers are accused in murder cases. There were serious charges against Rajendra Rathore and Gulab Chand Kataria, including their alleged involvement in encounter killings. One of them, Rajendra Rathore, was in jail whereas the other, Gulab Chand Kataria, is out on bail. Vasundhara Raje Sindhia has kept more than two dozen departments with herself. She declared that her ministry would be expanded after the Lok Sabha elections, after observing the role of BJP members of the legislative assembly during the coming elections. The austerity measures by the Aam Admi Party (AAP) seemed to have influenced the chief minister, Mrs Vasundhara Raje. In a resort to populist game, she has given up the official residence she was entitled to and has halved her security. The Rajasthan chief minister is, instead, living in the house that she was allotted as the leader of opposition --- a bungalow she had renovated. She has cut her convoy down to the bare minimum, and her government says her movements will not disturb the commoners. Mrs Vasundhara Raje also declared that she would change her life style, and announced the decision to stop at traffic signals like the common people. However the state government is being run from the BJP’s state headquarters and not from the state secretariat. Now her ministers are conducting the 'Jan Sunwai' (public hearing) sessions at the BJP headquarters. A staunch loyalist of Mrs Vasundhara Raje, Ashok Parnami, joined as the state BJP president recently, when Vasundhara Raje tendered her resignation as the state BJP president to the national president, claiming that she wished to observe the "one person, one post" principle. Kailash Meghwal, who was the minister of mines in the previous Vaisundhara Raje government, was elevated to the post of assembly speaker. Three BJP candidates got elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan. VISION DOCUMENT OR POLITICAL GIMMICK!? The state government, under the leadership of Mrs Vasundhara Raje, issued its vision document for the works to be completed in 60 days. However, most of the works listed in this document were of a routine nature and included some of the projects that were started by the previous Congress government. Implementation of the 60 day vision document was, however, a flop show and it also turned out to be a mere "political gimmick." In fact, the Vasundhara Raje government is working today like a self-centred private company. The interim budget presented by Mrs Vasundhara Raje was passed by a voice vote --- without any discussion --- amid the walkout by the entire opposition in the house. While BJP leaders had promised skies to the people during the electioneering, now the government seems unwilling to keep its promises made during the campaign. Vasundhara Raje herself stated in the Vidhan Sabha that she does not have an Alladin's lamp to solve the problems of the people. According to Raje, 60 days are not at all sufficient to clear the mess created during the previous government's tenure in the state. For example, BJP leaders declared during the pre-election days that they would provide employment to 15 lakh youth, but now the government has lowered number to only one lakh. The youth of Rajasthan now feel cheated. The BJP government, whose leaders had criticised the Rajasthan teachers eligibility test (RTET) during the campaigning and promised to withdraw the RTET from recruitment drive, now considers that the RTET is indispensable. BJP leaders promised to ensure eight hours electricity supply to the peasants’ wells and 24 hours supply to the common people. But this promise had proved hollow --- electricity is being provided for only six hours. The chief minister is now talking of a deficit of Rs 75,000 crore suffered by electricity distribution companies. The imposition of penalties worth several lakh rupees on the peasantry in the name of electricity theft is the order of the day. Peasants feel cheated and harassed. Now nobody is there in the assembly to raise the common man’s issues. There is a complete mess in the administration. More than 60 percent employees have been transferred from their earlier postings. Now Sangh followers are getting prized posts in Rajasthan. This process continues without any hurdle at the lower levels also. On the same day as Mrs Vasundhara Raje took oath on December 13, 2013, the agriculture department notified changes in the rules and regulations of crop insurance based on weather. The notification makes certain clarifications which are anti-farmer. If the claim amount is in excess of the premium of the concerned farmer, then the company may refuse to redeem the claim. The measurement of weather’s impact has also changed. Further, the amount of premium has also been raised to three times from the previous one. It created anger in the farmer community of Churu. BJP government has extended the turn (pari) in the Indira Gandhi canal area from 17 to 27 days. This was the ‘gift’ the state government gave to the population of Indira Gandhi canal area for electing the BJP candidates to the assembly. It has badly affected the entire population of the Indira Gandhi canal area. This BJP government is thus as vindictive as the previous Ashok Gehlot government regarding the peasantry. But the people too have started to agitate in the street without waiting any further. COMMUNALISM AND ANARCHY Communal forces are trying to throw the state into communal cauldron. Five communal riots have already taken place in the last two months. Recently, a communal riot broke out in village Kotadi of Pratapgarh district in the tribal area of Rajasthan, causing the death of three persons. The BJP government failed to take appropriate action to suppress the riot or in its aftermath. The RSS is bent upon vitiating the communal environment in the sensitive areas of Kota, Bhilwara, Chittorgarh and Udaipur. Now, the RSS is organising "Dand-Path-Sanchlan" in each and every village and city of the state. The BJP is making all out efforts to polarise the voters on religious lines during the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. The chief minister wrote a letter to the centre regarding reservation for the Jats of Bharatpur and Dholpur in order to get the support of the Jat community. It is therefore possible that the Jats come out in support of the BJP’s candidates in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. There have been serious changes in the law and order situation in Rajasthan during the last two months --- from bad to worse. The crime graph in the state is shooting up. The number of cases related to murder, dacoity, kidnapping, rape and burglary have witnessed a sharp increase over the past two months. Overall, crimes against women have increased significantly in this period in the state, which portrays a sorry state of affairs for the weaker gender despite having a woman as the chief minister. The state government has failed to arrest the addional chief secretary, Mohanti, who stands accused in the rape of a student. One assistant professor of Rajasthan University was registering his attendance daily despite being in jail for running a prostitution centre. The state government has accelerated the process of privatisation by declaring that private buses under the state transport corporation would ply from the roadways bus stands. The BJP state government has put the order of raising the minimum wage of workers, announced by the previous Congress government, into the cold storage. Chief minister Vasundhara Raje, however, recently got the taste of first full blown and much publicised revolt in the party ranks as BJP ministers and legislators vociferously opposed the Rajasthan foods bill 2014, tabled by the government in the Vidhan Sabha. After several legislators, including Ghanshyam Tiwari, Rao Rajendra Singh, Prahlad Gunjal and Joga Ram Patel, blasted the bill, saying it would harm the farmers and question the traders’ intent, the tables were turned on the government when its senior most minister Gulab Chand Kataria went ballistic against the bill, calling it anti-farmer and anti-trader. In collaboration with the police force, BJP workers have beaten some demonstrators in front of the state BJP headquarters. These demonstrators were demonstrating for a clarification regarding the RTET. This shows the authoritarian bent of the ruling party. THE CONGRESS: NO REVIVAL AFTER DEFEAT The main opposition party, the Congress, has not been able to revive from its most humiliating defeat to date. The defeat of the Congress in the assembly elections was the most crushing defeat ever, as it could win just 21 out of the 200 assembly seats. Chandrabhan lost deposit from the Mandawa assembly constituency in Jhunjhunu district and resigned as the state Congress chief the day the election results were out. Chandrabhan blamed the administration, the outgoing government and its ministers for this humiliating defeat of the Congress whereas the ministers accused the then state Congress president and its organisation for their defeat in the assembly elections. Anger among the Congress workers against the previous Ashok Gehlot government appears to have not yet subsided. Leaders have listed the ways party workers were ignored and even humiliated all through the earlier government's tenure, which ultimately led to intrigues and internal opposition in the party during the elections. Commotion, thrashings and use of abusive language have been very common in the election review meetings at the district and even state level. CPI(M) ON THE WARPATH The CPI(M), in its state committee meeting, has decided to launch agitations and struggles against the anti-people policies of the BJP state government and its communal drive. In Sikar, more than 10,000 construction workers gheraoed the Collectorate for more than four hours on January 24, 2014. Due to the gherao, the main Jaipur-Bikaner highway was jammed for more than four hours. On December 25, 2013, tens of thousands of people demonstrated in front of the Collectorate at Udaipur, demanding pattas for their houses. Under the banner of the AIDWA, hundreds of men and women demonstrated in front of the Collectorate in Sikar on February 25, 2014, demanding the arrest of the accused in the case of rape of minority community girls. The CITU has also organised demonstrations on minimum wages and other demands. There were some dharnas and demonstrations on the local level problems also.