The Opposition Congress staged a walkout in the Rajasthan Legislative Assembly in protest against the new BJP government’s decision to roll back the Rajiv Gandhi Yuva Mitra (RYM) scheme that resulted in the layoff of 5000 interns without notice soon after coming to power last month.

During Zero Hour on Tuesday soon after the adjournment motion, Congress’ Harimohan Sharma and Rohit Bohra, and Bhartiya Adivasi Party MLA Rajkumar Rot, led by the Leader of Opposition Tika Ram Jully, protested against the move the BJP new government has taken.

What intrigued them is that the first thing that the incumbent chief minister did within five days of coming to power was to withdraw the RYM scheme.

Demanding an explanation for the decision from the ruling party, the protesting legislators called for the restoration of the RYM scheme and reinstatement of the 5000 interns rendered jobless.

Leader of the Opposition in the House Jully alleged that the BJP government terminated the scheme out of political vendetta as it is named after the late Rajiv Gandhi. “The RYM interns were prevented from holding protest rallies across the state. They were evacuated from their sit-in venues by the police while. The police didn’t spare even the women sitting on dharna with their children under the harsh winter cold,” he said.

Congress MLA Harimohan told the House that these interns were employed with due process through a proper channel including interviews. But the BJP’s double-engine government rendered them unemployed in one stroke ignoring the promise it had made in its election manifesto of jobs to the state’s youth.

As the Speaker took up the next matter, the Congress walked out of the House amidst a minor uproar. The RYM scheme was started in 2021-21 and interns were recruited by various departments on a salary of Rs 10,000 per month for two years.

Earlier during Question Hour, the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) MLA Hanuman Beniwal cornered the ruling party with a question, “Why did the government not hand over the investigation into the paper-leak case to the CBI as was assured by the BJP in its election manifesto? Why was a special investigating team (SIT) constituted if not to buy the time?”

The House witnessed noisy scenes when the ruling and the Opposition MLAs hurled allegations and counter-allegations at each other on the paper leak cases in the competitive examinations during their respective regimes.

In his reply, Minister for Medical and Health G S Kheenvsar told the House that 33 cases of paper leak were registered since 2014. Chargesheet was filed in all the 33 cases while one case was still pending. Congress MLA G S Dotasara’s demand for a breakup of paper leak cases under the regimes Ashok Gehlot and Vijayraje Scindia Raje and the status of pending cases triggered another round of uproar when the Speaker called out the next questioner.