Senior BJP leader Uma Bharti | ANI
Senior BJP leader Uma Bharti | ANI
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New Delhi: Days after Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra said that new liquor shops will be opened in the state, senior BJP leader Uma Bharti has asked party president J.P. Nadda to impose an alcohol ban in states where the party is in power.

In a series of posts on Twitter Thursday, Bharti appealed to Nadda.

“I am making a public appeal to our party president JP Nadda through this tweet that wherever we have a BJP government, we should prepare for a complete prohibition in those states,” she posted in Hindi.

The former MP chief minister as well as Union minister also welcomed the delay by the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government in granting permission to these new shops.

“Government has not yet decided about increasing the number of liquor shops in Madhya Pradesh. This statement of Shivraj Singh Chouhan is a welcome step.”

She then went on to highlight the positives of prohibition.

“At the time of the lockdown due to coronavirus, there was almost a state of prohibition, it is clear from the fact that people died from other causes and corona but no one died due to drinking alcohol,” she argued.

Further, she highlighted the recent cases of people dying in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh due to drinking spurious liquor.

“Recently in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, a large number of people died due to drinking alcohol. Most of the road accidents are caused by the driver’s drinking. It is surprising that liquor is the messenger of death, yet greed and pressure from the liquor mafia does not allow for prohibition.”

Bharti also cited the pressure political parties were under to win elections. “The victory of BJP in Bihar proves that due to prohibition, women gave unilateral votes to Nitish Kumar,” she said.

“Prohibition is not a loss deal anywhere; the loss of revenue from liquor can be met from anywhere, but incidents of alcohol intoxication, murders, accidents, rape of young girls are frightening and a taint for the country and the society,” she said.

Bharti’s comments come at a time the Congress in Madhya Pradesh has been targeting the BJP and Mishra’s comments over the move. Former chief minister Kamal Nath alleged that the BJP government was converting the state into a “land of liquor”.



 

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