Arrogant Nitish's insensitive comment on illegal liquor deaths: If you drink liquor you'll die
At least 39 people have died in Saran district in the most recent tragedy, and the JDU-RJD government has been facing protests by the BJP in the assembly and outside over alleged laxity in implementing prohibition.
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Patna, Dec 15: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today rejected the possibility of giving compensation to the families of those killed by spurious liquor and said people should be "more vigilant" when the state anyway has prohibited it since 2016.
At least 39 people have died in Saran district in the most recent tragedy, and the JDU-RJD government has been facing protests by the BJP in the assembly and outside over alleged laxity in implementing prohibition.
"Jo sharaab peeyega, wo toh marega hi na... Udaharan saamne hai — peeyoge toh maroge. (Those who drink liquor will obviously die. We have an example in this case)," Kumar said in Hindi in response to a question in Patna, referring to demands of compensation in earlier cases. Nitish Kumar had lost his cool in the Vidhan Sabha over the protests and threw a "you are drunk" jibe at the BJP members earlier this week. Today he said grief should indeed be expressed, and then people be made aware by going to the affected places. "We have been running massive social awareness drives." He argued that even when there was no prohibition, people died of toxic liquor. "People have died in huge numbers in other states as well," he added. There have been similar deaths in Gujarat, another prohibited state, and Punjab in recent years. "You know what Bapu (Mahatma Gandhi) has said (in favor of prohibition), and what research across the world shows — all of that has been sent to people's homes — about how liquor is a bad thing, how many people die because of it. People have been dying of toxic (spurious) liquor for a long, and it happens across the country," he said. "We have taken strict action, but people need to be more vigilant. When there's prohibition, the liquor being sold will obviously have something wrong in it," he further said. "Also, remember, you should not drink liquor anyway. Most people have agreed with the prohibition policy. But some people will make mistakes," he argued.
Bihar is one of two big states — the other being Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state Gujarat — that have prohibitions at present. Nagaland and Mizoram have similar policies with some exceptions. Over the decades, states like Kerala in the south and Haryana in the north have tried the policy but had to lift it mostly because implementation was difficult.
Bharati Web
Mes, Pune
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