E-Paper
BJP no to Mallya's idea of lifting prohibition in Gujarat
Dismissing liqour baron Vijay Mallya's suggestion that prohibition in Gujarat should be done away with to prevent tragedies caused by spurious liqour, BJP on Saturday said there was no relation between the two and accused Mallya of only looking for a market to sell his product.
Dismissing liqour baron Vijay Mallya's suggestion that prohibition in Gujarat should be done away with to prevent tragedies caused by spurious liqour, BJP on Saturday said there was no relation between the two and accused Mallya of only looking for a market to sell his product.
"Vijay Mallya has a brand which he wants to market and since he does not get a market in Gujarat he is making these statements. There is no relationship between prohibition and deaths caused by spurious liqour as such cases have also been reported in states which do not have prohibition," BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy told reporters.
He said Mallya had a liqour business and so he could not tell a state whether to have prohibition or not.
Rudy said Gujarat had prohibition even during Congress rule and BJP could not be accused of imposing the ban there.
"Before accusing us, one should also ask our Congress friends why they had imposed prohibition in Gujarat," he said.
Successive governments in Gujarat, birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi, have continued with prohibition in the state.
Rudy said the BJP government in Gujarat was "worried" about the recent incident in Ahmedabad - where over 125 people have died after consuming illicit liqour - and was taking all requisite steps to deal with the tragedy.
