Hooch tragedy in BJP-ruled Gujarat comes to rescue of ally JD(U) in Bihar

When a dozen people died after consuming spurious liquor in the Saran district of Bihar on August 4-5 the response of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party was somewhat muted. This was rather surprising as till now the leaders of the biggest constituent––the National Democratic Alliance––in the ruling coalition would not spare any opportunity to criticize the government led by good friend Nitish Kumar of Janata Dal (United).

This was understandable as the tragedy in Bihar followed the death of 55 people in similar circumstances in dry Gujarat late last month. As the memory of the Gujarat incident is too fresh the saffron party leaders lacked the moral courage to come down heavily on the Nitish Kumar government on this count.

Needless to remind, the Nitish government had in April 2016 imposed total prohibition in the state. Yet the truth is that hooch tragedy is quite a regular phenomenon in Bihar. Often the administration would try to hush up the matter or give some other reason for the death of so many people—for example, a cold wave, any disease or epidemic, etc.

But ironically whenever such an incident takes place it is the BJP leaders who would blast Nitish more than any opposition bigwig. They would apparently come down heavily on the police and administration for lack of commitment to implementing prohibition.

This time the story appears to be a bit different as the hooch tragedy in Gujarat is too big. The opposition MPs, especially of the Aam Aadmi Party forcefully raised the issue in Parliament. The BJP is defensive as Gujarat, the land of Mahatma Gandhi is going for a poll in December. This is the state where the BJP is in power for more than a quarter century and alcohol have been banned since its very birth 62 years back—May 1, 1960.

If so many people died after taking liquor in Gujarat, the state from where Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah come, the BJP rank and file in Bihar are finding it difficult to attack Nitish.

It seems that bootlegging is rampant in Gujarat as in Bihar, though the former was ruled by Modi for 13 years. What is shocking is that in Bihar the death of so many people occurred after they consumed illicit liquor at the end of the puja ceremony.

Curiously, BJP MLC Tunnajee Pandey is considered as a liquor baron in Bihar. He has repeatedly been critical of the style of functioning of Nitish Kumar and sometimes back openly praised the late RJD strongman from Siwan late Mohammad Shahabuddin. He even went to his house after the former RJD MP died of coronavirus while undergoing life imprisonment in Delhi’s Tihar Jail.

Though the Bihar BJP top brass is caught in a bind over the prohibition policy of the Nitish Kumar government yet there is no denying the fact that several persons having links with both the parties of the ruling coalition of Bihar are involved in patronising this business.

There is another reason for the BJP downplaying the latest deaths in Bihar. According to the media reports Union home minister Amit Shah, while addressing the national level meeting of various front organisations of the BJP in Patna on July 31, asked the party men not to be too critical of the Bihar government in which it is a major partner. He reminded them as to how the BJP ended up with just 53 seats in the Assembly election held in November 2015 after the JD(U) deserted the saffron camp and joined hands with the RJD and Congress. The three had walked away with 178 seats in the House of 243.

Amit Shah’s advice came just a month after very strong criticism of the Nitish Kumar government by the Bihar BJP chief Sanjay Jaiswal. The latter left no stone unturned to directly blame it for the mishandling of Agnipath agitation. Property and houses of the BJP leaders, including that of Jaiswal himself and the deputy CM Reenu Devi, were targeted during the four-day mayhem. In many places, even the offices of the saffron party were ransacked and torched. – INDIA NEWS STREAM