By Archana Sharma

Jaipur, Jul 5 (IANS): The Rajasthan Governor Kalraj Mishra's biography 'Nimitt Matra Hoon Main' has been caught into controversies, days after its release.

The first thing that raised eyebrows is, chief minister Ashok Gehlot came out from the middle of his quarantine just for the purpose to release this book which clearly carried a humble appeal to 'Join BJP'.

Secondly, the copies of the book were sold to 27 university vice-chancellors without their consent. Thirdly, the book which was released by Gehlot and Speaker C.P. Joshi along with Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla praises senior RSS leaders and lauds the GST implementation by the central government, both of which are openly criticised by the Congress government in the state and the party at the centre.

As soon as the book was released on July 1, the publisher gave 19 copies to each of the 27 vice chancellors of the government universities of the state even when no orders were received for sale of the books. Along with these copies, bills of Rs 68,000 were also handed over to their staff associated with them which mostly included drivers of these VCs, said sources.

The next controversy surrounding the release of the book is its content which appeals to readers to join the BJP and surprisingly, the book was released by Congress CM Ashok Gehlot and speaker CP Joshi, both of whom represent Congress government in the state.

The other interesting thing surrounding the release of the book is that the CM Gehlot came out from the middle of his two-month quarantine period just to attend this function, raising eyebrows and questions if he did not read its content before going for the book release.

Earlier on June 14, the CM's media team had announced that Gehlot will not have any one-on-one meetings in person for the next one or two months, keeping in mind the post Covid precautions he has to take.

The other controversy surrounding the book is that on page 116, it appeals to people to join BJP. Also, it speaks on RSS leaders and praises implementation of the GST, both of which have been opposed by the Congress government.

Meanwhile, looking at the growing controversy on the book release, the Raj Bhavan has issued a statement saying, "The publisher had published the book and sought permission to release it in the Raj Bhavan, which was given to him. But Raj Bhavan has no role or any kind of affiliation in the business activities or marketing of the book."

However, the Congress government has gone silent and there has been no statement issued on this issue.