Union Minister Anurag Thakur on March 24 hit out at Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann over the deaths of 21 people due to the consumption of spurious liquor.
Addressing a press conference at the BJP’s national headquarters in New Delhi, Mr. Thakur said that it was shameful that as Chief Minister of Punjab, a State where so many people lost their lives to a hooch tragedy, the Chief Minister [Mr. Mann] was stationed in Delhi and did not “utter a word about the incident, nor initiate an investigation”.
“Chief Minister Mann stays put in Delhi to what he terms a fight for jailed accused in the Excise Policy case Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh, and now Arvind Kejriwal, but when 21 people in his constituency died after consuming illicit liquor, his government is protecting liquor traders,” said Mr. Thakur.
He declared that the people of India would never approve of the “somnolent” Punjab government and the Delhi government running from jail.
Hitting out at the INDIA bloc, he said that Tamil Nadu Minister Anitha Radhakrishnan’s objectionable remarks on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, indicated that the constituents of the alliance “have lost their sanity”. He demanded that leaders of the alliance tender an apology over the remarks, with a jibe as Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s “Mohabbat ki dukaan” (shop of love) concept, stating : “Mohabbat ki dukaan main nafrat ka samaan (A shop of love stocked with an inventory of hate).”
Mr. Radhakrishnan had used expletives against Mr. Modi at a public rally in Tamil Nadu, sparking controversy.
