On Friday, Pilot said: “Anyone would welcome auditing schools in Punjab or elsewhere. Only one request/suggestion: audit Punjab with the same eyes, the same questions and the same courage with which you audit governments elsewhere. Punjab deserves no special exemption—and AAP deserves no friendly exemption.” (File)Former Rajasthan deputy chief minister and the newly appointed Congress party in-charge for Punjab, Sachin Pilot, Friday asked the Cockroach Janta Party’s (CJP) to conduct a school ‘audit’ in Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-ruled Punjab with the “same courage” as it has been doing elsewhere.Pilot’s comments came following a CJP audit of three schools in Punjab’s Ludhiana, where CJP Co-convenor Saurav Das led a team that visited a government ‘School of Eminence’, a government senior secondary school and a government primary school.According to a video Das posted Thursday, while the School of Eminence had good infrastructure, a swimming pool, badminton court, ramp access for differently abled, AI lab etc., the other two had multiple issues, with Das saying that all three could have better toilets.Subsequently, Das and others also met Punjab Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains, who was quoted by Das as having promised action on the complaints. AAP founder and former Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal also “thanked” Das “for pointing out our deficiencies” and that “we will immediately address them.” However, the ‘audit’ has since been panned by several social media users who alleged that CJP was going soft as Punjab is ruled by the AAP.This, they said, was in contrast to schools in other states zeroed in by the CJP. In Pilot’s home state Rajasthan, for example, CJP had planned to begin its audit on August 21 with a school being run in a cow shed, but the CJP delegation, led by co-convenor Ashutosh Ranka, was assaulted by some locals the outfit claimed were associated with the BJP. Both sides then filed cross FIRs, with Ranka and others also being booked under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.On Friday, Pilot said: “Anyone would welcome auditing schools in Punjab or elsewhere. Only one request/suggestion: audit Punjab with the same eyes, the same questions and the same courage with which you audit governments elsewhere. Punjab deserves no special exemption—and AAP deserves no friendly exemption.”Responding to Pilot, AAP leaders asked Pilot to compare schools in Punjab with Congress ruled Himachal Pradesh. AAP leader and former Delhi Education minister Manish Sisodia said: “We can show such excellent 1,000 schools, can you show us such 1,000 schools from Himachal Pradesh? Let us audit the government schools of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh together. Speak! Do you accept the challenge?”Story continues below this adQuestioning Pilot’s “defence” of dilapidated schools in BJP-ruled Rajasthan, AAP national media in-charge Anurag Dhanda asked, “What do you call this relationship?”He too said “if you give us the list of 1,000 schools in Himachal, we’ll give you the list of 1,000 schools in Punjab”.“We can even go together to audit them. Tell us, do you agree?” he asked.Meanwhile, tagging a user, Ranka said that he had requested Rajasthan Education Minister Madan Dilawar “several times to show the 10 most splendid schools built during his tenure. He did not listen. If you know, then tell me; we’ll go there. Good schools will also be shown”.Story continues below this adThe CJP has previously faced criticism over the states it has chosen to target, with BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad recently accusing the outfit of being “silent on Punjab and Congress-ruled states” while targeting BJP-ruled states. Hamza Khan is a seasoned Correspondent for The Indian Express, specifically reporting from the diverse and politically dynamic state of Rajasthan. Based in Jaipur, he provides high-authority coverage on the state's governance, legal landscape, and social issues, directly supporting the "Journalism of Courage" ethos of the publication. Expertise Politics & Governance: Comprehensive tracking of the Rajasthan Legislative Assembly, including policy changes (e.g., the Right to Health Bill and Anti-Mob Lynching Bills), bypoll dynamics, and the shifting power structures between the BJP and Congress. ... Read More