Tejashwi Yadav Slams Nitish Kumar On Liquor Prohibition

Patna: RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Tuesday hit out at the Nitish Kumar government on liquor prohibition in the state, calling it a "farce" and accused the ruling JD(U) of depending on finance from "illicit" liquor sales. Yadav's comment followed the death of four people in Rohtas district after drinking spurious liquor last week, over one-and-half-years after the state banned liquor.

Members of the JD(U) are involved in illicit liquor business in the state on a large scale, Yadav, also Leader of Opposition in the Bihar Assembly, claimed. "The prohibition is a farce. JD(U) is heavily dependent for its finances on earnings through illicit liquor. As its national president, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar owes an answer to the people of the state as to how many people from his own party has his government acted against for flouting prohibition, which he loves to flaunt as his great achievement," Yadav told reporters at a press conference.

He said there had been allegations that many officers have got transferred for laying their hands on a JD(U) leader involved in illicit liquor business. Training guns on JD(U) ally BJP, he said the party used to call the prohibition law "draconian" while in opposition.

"Now that it is sharing power, it is maintaining silence on the issue," the RJD leader remarked. Seeking to clear RJD's name, he said the party and JD(U) were coalition partners in the erstwhile grand alliance government when Kumar was planning to introduce the prohibition.

"We (RJD) had then supported the move in the interests of the society though it was resulting in a loss of revenue of Rs 5,000 crore. Now we see that illicit liquor has become a thriving business", Yadav, a former deputy chief minister, alleged.

Pillorying Kumar, the RJD leader said Kumar has found a "new pet social reform measure" -- dowry-less marriage and had recently welcomed a teacher from Bhojpur district at his official residence who claimed to have said no to dowry.

"But in the photographs we see a JD(U) leader sharing space who happens to be the main accused in a 2012 hooch case ... the way he got an entry into the high-security official residence of the CM raises many questions about the chief minister's sense of judgement with regard to the people he chooses to interact with," Yadav said. "The Nitish Kumar-led NDA government in the state will collapse within six months," he claimed but did not elaborate.

PTI