New excise policy curbed ₹3,500 crore theft, says Delhi deputy CM Manish Sisodia

Demanding the immediate roll back of the excise policy, the BJP blocked roads in several areas across the city. In the run-up to the municipal elections due to be held in April this year, the BJP is trying to corner the AAP on its excise policy, which came into effect in November last year

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) ‘chakka jam’ protest against the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government’s new excise policy in Delhi led to a war of words between the two parties on Monday. While the BJP claimed the new policy will make the capital “a city of liquor” shops, Delhi’s deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia alleged that the new policy has jolted the BJP as it has “deep ties with the liquor mafia”.

Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia. (File Photo)

Demanding the immediate roll back of the excise policy, the BJP blocked roads in several areas across the city. In the run-up to the municipal elections due to be held in April this year, the BJP is trying to corner the AAP on its excise policy, which came into effect in November last year.

According to the policy, the Delhi government has quit the retail liquor business with nearly 600 government-run liquor vends operating across the national capital shutting shop. It aims at revolutionising the consumer experience with setting up swanky shops and rooting out the liquor mafia.

Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia hit out at the BJP for opposing the policy, saying that the party is opposing it because the new policy has “stopped the theft of ₹3,500 crore”. “The BJP has deep ties with the liquor mafia in Delhi. The BJP had made such a system that wherever there were no legal liquor shops, they used to operate illegal shops and run them through the mafia. The new excise policy of the Kejriwal government stopped revenue theft of over Rs3500 crores. Both BJP and the liquor mafia were immersed in this loot of ₹3500 crores. The BJP is surely feeling the pain because their theft has been plugged. The Kejriwal government is now using this revenue for public interest.”

The Delhi BJP has been opposing the new policy since June last year, when it was notified by the Delhi government. Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta said, “All Delhi citizens, including women, are concerned as new liquor vends are being opened in residential areas close to people’s homes. While [chief minister Arvind] Kejriwal talks of prohibition in the poll-bound Punjab, he is hell-bent upon making Delhi a city of liquor shops. Kejriwal government is opening 850 new liquor shops. While Kejriwal has himself written in his book Swaraj that liquor shop can’t be opened in any area without local leaders or officials being bribed.”

On Monday, several senior BJP leaders, including South Delhi MP Ramesh Bidhuri, and former East Delhi mayor Harshdeep Malhotra, took to the streets along with party workers to protest against the policy.

Responding to Sisodia charge, Gupta said, “He (Sisodia) does not seem to have read Arvind Kejriwal’s book, Swaraj, in which the latter has talked about how the opening of a liquor shop results in corruption. Today, so many shops are being opened by the government. Shops have been opened in residential areas, near religious places, schools, etc.”

He said that the BJP will continue to protest against the excise policy till it is withdrawn.

Sisodia also slammed the BJP for vandalising public property. He said, “The BJP is upset with our ban on theft that it is troubling the public. DTC buses bought with people’s money are being vandalised, BJP workers are puncturing their tyres. This shows the anti-people mentality of BJP. I strongly condemn the hooliganism that the BJP created on the streets of Delhi today. Amid the ongoing pandemic, it is time to serve the public and not to harass the public and damage government property.”

Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor termed Sisodia’s statement as irresponsible. “Nothing can be more irrelevant and irresponsible then Sisodia’s statement about BJP’s ties with liquor mafia. For the past 24 years, the BJP has been out of power in Delhi. BJP leaders had no powers to check or control liquor sale in Delhi be it from the 650 government vends or by illicit liquor sellers.He said that there has been a loot of Rs. 3500 crores per annum through liquor mafia. Obviously, mafia will pay those in government and hence for last eight years the AAP seems to have been receiving this money.”

AAP MLA Dilip Pandey slammed the BJP for not supporting AAP government’s “progressive policy”.

Political analyst Tanvir Aeijaz, professor of political science at Ramjas College, said, “The BJP has been trying to build a general opinion against the AAP by raising the issue of the excise policy. They are taking the moral high ground, but the real issues affecting people are different. It [civic polls] is about sanitation and basic civic services.”