New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Tuesday challenged the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to increase the legal drinking age to 25 years in all party-ruled states, saying the Arvind Kejriwal government will increase it to 30 years if the BJP accepts the challenge.
The AAP was reacting to the BJP’s criticism of the Delhi government’s move to decrease the legal drinking age in Delhi from the current 25 years to 21 years. Delhi was one of only six states or Union territories that pegged the benchmark at 25.
AAP chief spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj rejected BJP’s criticism as “hypocrisy”. He said the legal drinking age in BJP-ruled states such as Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh was 21 years. “In BJP-ruled Goa, it is 18 years,” he said.
Bhardwaj further said that the BJP should ask the central government to bring a law to fix the legal drinking age at 25 years. “I am surprised to see the hypocrisy of the BJP. In the BJP-ruled states, the legal age for consuming liquor is 21 years for the last so many years. I challenge Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta and leader of opposition Ramvir Bidhuri to change it to 25 years in the BJP-ruled states, then we will make it 30 years in Delhi,” he said.
Bhardwaj said the Delhi government’s move was aimed at putting an end to harassment of restaurant owners by the police. “When youths under 21 years go to restaurants and pubs, police extorts money from restaurant owners which then makes its way to the top. Once the police is in place, this malpractice will stop and that is why the BJP is upset,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}Bhardwaj said the Delhi government’s move was aimed at putting an end to harassment of restaurant owners by the police. “When youths under 21 years go to restaurants and pubs, police extorts money from restaurant owners which then makes its way to the top. Once the police is in place, this malpractice will stop and that is why the BJP is upset,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}The Delhi BJP said the Delhi government move will proliferate spurious liquor, promote crime and “spoil” youngsters.
“The right thing to do will be tightening the liquor policy to make Delhi safe for women and keep youngsters away from the liquor. It seems the Kejriwal government values revenue more than the safety of women or saving the youngsters from falling into this habit,” Gupta said.
Gupta along with other senior leaders also staged a protest on Tuesday against the new proposed excise policy.
Gupta said, “The Kejriwal government is unmindful of the fact that more liquor shops will lead to increased crime rate in Delhi. The government instead of providing clean drinking water is focusing on equitable distribution of liquor vends.”
Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, leader of opposition in the Delhi assembly, said, “It is unfortunate that the Kejriwal government is putting revenue and money ahead of the lives and safety of the citizens.”