BHOPAL: Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Uma Bharti has renewed her call for a total ban on alcohol in the state, in the wake of the recent deaths due to spurious liquor in villages of Sagar district’s Banda area.
Deeply pained by deaths, Bharti, a former Union Minister and one of the most prominent faces of the Ayodhya Ram Temple Movement, hit out at the local public representatives, spanning from the village sarpanch to the MLAs and MP, for failing to prevent the making and sale of illicit and spurious liquor.
“Till the time the local public representatives, spanning from the village sarpanch to the MLA and MP don’t perform their duties sincerely, spurious and illicit liquor menace cannot be stopped. What were the public representatives doing? Why were they silent on the issue. All public representatives till the MLAs and MP, need to be questioned as to whether they knew about the making and sale of spurious liquor in the villages. If they knew about it, they need to tell the people, whether they informed about to the district police superintendent or not,” Bharti told journalists after meeting CM Dr Mohan Yadav at her residence in Bhopal on Monday.
Bharti’s candid remarks about the local representatives’ apathy to the illicit/spurious liquor menace assume particular significance, as seven out of the eight MLAs in Sagar district are BJP legislators, while two MPs (Sagar and Damoh MP) too are from the BJP only. Importantly, Bharti also hails from the same Bundelkhand region, which houses Sagar district.
On the issue of ongoing bulldozing of illegal properties and encroachments of the liquor tragedy accused and aides in Sagar district, Bharti questioned, “Such illegal properties weren’t built in two days, they would’ve come up in five to seven years, what were the officials posted there doing when these illegal structures were being built. While razing those properties, action should also be ensured against the officials under whose postings those illegal buildings and structures were allowed to be built.”
Renewing her call for a total liquor ban in the state, Bharti said, “If Banda is the problem, then Shivpuri is the solution. What the women did in Shivpuri is praiseworthy, the women of Shivpuri district need to become a role model for women across the state. Women alone can fight the battle for total liquor ban in the state. Had doctors not advised me rest for 45 days due to persistent back pain and associated problems, I would have travelled to Shivpuri and publicly honoured those women, who sabotaged the liquor vend recently. Let me become fit, I’ll meet those brave women and lead women across the state for total liquor ban.”
“If poisonous liquor kills 100-200 people at one go, the legalized liquor too is equally dangerous to human health, as it silently and gradually destroys the vital organs, including lungs, liver and kidneys, ultimately leading to untimely death. It’s time our state moves to complete liquor ban, what will be it’s consequences will be seen later. Women will lead the movement for demanding it, I’m ready to join that movement.”
Triggered partly by safety concerns and public anger following toxic liquor incidents in Madhya Pradesh (such as in Sagar district), women recently took to the streets in multiple villages of Shivpuri district recently. Women and local residents reportedly stormed government-licensed and illegal liquor shops, broke doors, threw liquor crates into drains, and set some stock on fire. Tribal women also staged a 5-hour road blockade (chakka-jam) on the Khod-Sirsaud road demanding total prohibition and better basic amenities.
Importantly, during the previous BJP regime in the state which was led by current Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the ex-CM Uma Bharti had taken proactively to streets, leading women across the state, including in Bhopal against liquor vends operating in residential areas.
On the Gen Z and Rahul Gandhi:
“There is a surge of passion among young people, but even in that passion there is discernment. They used intemperate language for our Prime Minister, so I cannot speak in their favour, such language should not have been used by educated young people,” Bharti said when asked by journalists about the recent protests by Gen Z in Delhi.
“Remember Nepal, they (Gen Z) overthrew the government but whom did they the make prime minister? Septuagenarian Sushila Karki, so they will consider Modi (PM Modi) as their leader and not Rahul (Rahul Gandhi). Rahul himself has grown old, he is over fifty. He is a Dokra now (elderly old man). At his age, people generally have grandchildren.”
