Veteran Congress leader and former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Saturday (February 28, 2026) sought the restoration of the public welfare schemes launched by his government, which have been discontinued or diluted by the current Bharatiya Janata Party government in the State. Mr. Gehlot raised the demand after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Ajmer.
Mr. Gehlot, who wrote a letter to Mr. Modi on this issue ahead of his visit, said the people were expecting the Prime Minister to speak on such issues of public interest. He pointed out that Mr. Modi himself had promised, during the State Assembly election campaign in 2023, that no scheme of the Congress government would be shut down if the BJP came to power.
“Do you not want the entire country to receive the right to health like Rajasthan? Do you have no interest in revolutionary decisions like the Gig Workers Welfare Act and the Urban Employment Guarantee?” Mr. Gehlot asked in a post on X.
Strict law on paper leaks
Mr. Gehlot said the BJP government had changed the name of the Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project, but had failed to do any work on it. Regarding the problem of leaked papers in recruitment exams, he said the Prime Minister should have praised the State’s stringent law which includes provisions such as life imprisonment, a fine of ₹10 crore, and the confiscation of the culprits’ property.
“Instead of engaging in politics to mislead the youth, you should have spoken about enacting such a strict law at the Centre. The BJP government is not even able to show the courage to investigate the OMR sheet scam that occurred during its present tenure,” Mr. Gehlot said.
‘Double zero’
The former Chief Minister said it would have been better if Mr. Modi had stood by his guarantee given during the Assembly election not to discontinue existing welfare schemes, and directed CM Bhajan Lal Sharma to restart the closed schemes. “Your hollow slogan of ‘double engine’ is now proving to be ‘double zero’ in Rajasthan,” Mr. Gehlot remarked.
In his letter to Mr. Modi, Mr. Gehlot had expressed concern over the delay in payments under health insurance schemes, changes in the free electricity scheme, and the discontinuation of Annapurna ration kits as well as the Indira Gandhi credit card scheme. Apart from this, several infrastructure projects in Jaipur, Jodhpur, and Kota, including hospitals and institutes, had not been operationalised despite being completed, he alleged.
