In a two-page letter in Hindi, Hazare drew Kejriwal’s attention to his previous stance on the sale of liquor and alleged that Kejriwal’s actions differ from his words. Mentioning ‘Swaraj’, a book written by Kejriwal in 2012, Hazare said that he wrote the foreword of the book and they had written great things about the Gram Sabha and an ideal liquor policy.
Anna Hazare writes to Delhi CM Kejriwal over New Liquor Policy
“Had expected a similar policy(like Maharashtra’s). But you didn’t do it.People seem to be trapped in a circle of money for power&power for money. It doesn’t suit a party that emerged from a major movement,”he writes pic.twitter.com/4yTvc0XI5K
— ANI (@ANI) August 30, 2022
Hazare alleged that Kejriwal had forgotten all that he preached and the Delhi government has now formulated a liquor policy by which the sale of alcohol and drinking can be encouraged. “It seems to me that the new policy by the Delhi government will lead to increased consumption of liquor and rise in alcoholism, and liquor vends will come up in every lane. This will also lead to an increase in corruption,” said Hazare. “From this, it seems like, just like liquor intoxicates, so does power. It looks like you too have become drunk on power,” he added.
“You wrote so many ideal things in this book named ‘Swaraj’. I had high hopes for you then. But after going into politics and becoming the chief minister, it seems that you have forgotten the ideal ideology,” Hazare wrote in the letter.
He talked about the time Kejriwal visited the Ralegan Siddhi village, along with Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia. “You joined us because of the Lokpal movement. Since then, you and Manish Sisodia have visited Ralegan Siddhi village several times. You have seen the work done by the villagers. Liquor, bidi, and cigarettes are not for sale in the village for the last 35 years. You were inspired to see this. You praised this too,” Hazare said.
“AAP (Aam Aadmi Party) had talked about adopting the political path. But you forgot that forming a political party was not the aim of our movement,” Anna Hazare further wrote. He pointed out several villages in Maharashtra where he was successful in stopping or limiting the sale of alcohol. He said he expected Kejriwal to implement a similar policy in the national capital as well, but that did not happen. “Such a policy was expected by the Delhi government as well. But you did not do that. People often get trapped in this vicious cycle of money to power and power to money,” he said.
(With PTI inputs)
