Motihari hooch tragedy: BJP questions CM’s silence on hooch tragedy, Manjhi demands all-party meet
PATNA: As the toll in the Motihari hooch tragedy jumped to 22 on Sunday,the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as well as partners of the Grand Alliance (GA) in unison criticised the state government over its inability to control hooch tragedies, even as chief minister Nitish Kumar has been defending prohibition and maintaining that such tragedies are occurring due to some unscrupulous elements.
With the toll expected to mount further, several leaders from the BJP on Sunday reached the affected area.
“It is a carnage due to the inability of the administration to check spurious liquor from reaching the people. During the RJD regime, Bihar was infamous for massacres. Now, it is a different kind of carnage and chief minister Nitish Kumar should take moral responsibility for this. The kin of the victims should be given compensation, as it was not their fault. It is the failure of the administration. Had the government learned lessons from the Saran hooch tragedy and taken prompt action, such a situation would not have arisen,” said the leader of the Opposition Vijay Kumar Sinha, who visited the victim families along with senior BJP leaders Radha Mohan Singh and Ram Surat Rai.
Sinha’s predecessor and MP Dr. Sanjay Jaiswal said seven of the 24 victims were from his Lok Sabha constituency Bettiah and alleged that the administration reached the home of the victims and threatened their kin to perform last rites immediately. “The autopsy of those who died in hospital was also not performed, as the administration has been directed to minimise the toll and its spread. It is strange that the administration tried to propagate diarrhoea theory first, unmindful of the magnitude of the tragedy. How could diarrhoea not affect any woman or children?” he asked, attacking Nitish Kumar for silence over another man-made tragedy.
Nitish Kumar’s ally and Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) leader Jitan Ram Manjhi demanded an all-party meeting to discuss the future course of prohibition, as deaths were consistently taking place. “I have been telling that it needs to be reviewed, as spurious liquor is reaching the people. Bihar’s anti-liquor law has been a major challenge for the government from day one,” he said.
Earlier, Manjhi had demanded a review of Bihar’s liquor policy by following the “Gujarat’s permit model” to prevent hooch tragedies.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Bihar also demanded proper treatment for those admitted to hospitals and adequate support for their kin.
Strongly defending prohibition once again, Nitish had earlier said that the hooch tragedies taking place in states without prohibition is a bigger crime. “We have been largely successful in prohibition, as it has been established that family bliss has returned due to it and people are happier spending the amount saved on liquor on better food and lifestyle. However, nobody can claim it can be 100%, as there are always some unscrupulous elements into making money at the cost of human lives and resorting to criminal acts,” he said while interacting with the media.
The challenge of prohibition stares at the government despite surveys showing overwhelming support for the policy. A number of hooch tragedies, the worst being in Saran last year in which, according to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), 77 lives had been lost, has raised a question mark over the efficacy of prohibition, which was imposed in the state in April 2016.
