By IANS,
Mumbai/Gandhinagar : Citing the latest moonshine tragedy in Gujarat, liquor baron Vijay Mallya Saturday blamed the state’s prohibition policy for the loss of 136 lives. But the Narendra Modi-led government tersely told him: Mind your own business.
“The deaths resulting from the consumption of spurious alcohol is not only tragic, but should also serve as a wake up call to all political hypocrites. Narendra Modi knows fully well that every brand of alcohol is available in the state,” said Mallya in a statement.
“The farce of prohibition, which cannot be enforced, leads to illegal, unhyegenic and unsupervised production of deadly cocktails which claim innocent lives. It is time that political masters face reality in the interests of people’s health,” he added.
But speaking on behalf of the Modi government, state Health Minister Jay Narayan Vyas rebuked Mallya, who runs United Breweries and United Spirits, for suggesting a review the state’s prohibition policy, that has been on since its birth in 1960.
“This is an internal matter of the Gujarat government and Mr. Mallya should avoid making suggestions on what should be done in Gujarat,” Vyas told reporters in Gandhinagar.
The moonshine tragedy came to light in the eastern part of Ahmedabad, some 35 km from the capital Tuesday, and has claimed 136 lives, most of them labourers, who died after consuming illegally brewed alcohol.
Vyas also claimed that similar tragedies had taken place in recent months in several states that do not impose prohibition and specifically named Kerala, Karnataka, Delhi and Maharashtra in this regard.