THE 'PILOT EPISODE' FLIES AGAIN

Charges fly back and forth as Gehlot camp counters clean chit to 2020 rebellion

- By Rohit Parihar

OLD FOES Former Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot; right, Congress leader Sachin Pilot

IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN A MINOR EPILOGUE, an act of formal closure. But a court order has drawn the curtains back on one of the most controversial chapters in Rajasthan politics in recent times: Sachin Pilot's revolt of 2020, which had almost split the then Ashok Gehlot government.

Tough conversations have resumed around the 'Pilot episode. Innuendo and recrimination fill the air again; allegations and rebuttals are flying back and forth between various camps of the Congress, as well as between the exCM and top BJP leaders, the surround sound made more lurid by leaked audio clips and phone-tapping charges.

'CASUAL CHATTER'

Months ago, the state Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) had filed a closure report before the trial court, saying it had found no evidence of bribery, horsetrading or conspiracy to topple the Gehlot regime. The intercepted phone calls said to clinch the claim contained only "casual political chatter", it held.