Jaipur: A row has erupted over the proposed ‘inauguration’ of the Constitution Club of Rajasthan in Jaipur by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on March 8.
The Club was inaugurated on September 22, 2023, by the then Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot. On Tuesday, speaking in the Assembly, Speaker Vasudev Devnani invited the MLAs for the inauguration by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla at 11 am on March 8.
On Wednesday, Congress state president Govind Singh Dotasra posted on X, “The entire politics of BJP has become limited to ‘credit and conspiracy’. By ‘inaugurating’ the Constitution Club – which was built during the tenure of the previous Congress government – again, and calling it an inauguration, the BJP government only wants to take credit, which is a wrong practice.”
“The people of Rajasthan know that the Constitution Club of the Legislative Assembly was built during the Congress government… But after the change of power, the BJP government kept the Constitution Clubclosed till now so that it could take credit for its ‘re’-inauguration,” he said.
The Club was inaugurated by Gehlot in September 2023in the presence of then Assembly Speaker C P Joshi, Urban Development and Housing Minister Shanti Dhariwal and then Leader of Opposition and BJP leader Rajendra Rathore, among others. Interestingly, the Constitution Club website has a dedicated page for photos of the inauguration which are still up.
Attacking Speaker Devnani for the move, Dotasra said, “The executive committee constituted for the club has the right to take any decision related to the Constitution Club, but the decision of the Speaker to inaugurate the club is completely improper and against the rules. The Speaker neither called a meeting of the executive committee before taking the decision nor did he take the opinion of the members and create a consensus.”
Dostara also shared a photo from the inauguration of Gehlot and others.
In January, Gehlot had attacked the BJP government over the same issue, saying, “On September 22, 2023, the Constitution Club was inaugurated, but the BJP government kept it closed for more than a year and is now reinaugurating it.”
Constructed near the state Assembly, Gehlot had said the Club is modeled on the lines of Delhi’s Constitution Club, “for politicians, intellectuals, journalists, writers, officials, and the awakened sections of society, so that an exchange of good ideas can take place there.”
