Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president V.M. Sudheeran has said that the liquor policy of the United Democratic Front (UDF) government and the financial crisis now experienced in the State are two different things.
“The two issues should not be mixed up. The liquor policy is yet to be implemented and it has not brought a financial crisis in the State,” Mr. Sudheeran said here on Saturday.
When asked about UDF coalition partners’ remark that his adamant prohibitionist stand forced the government to adopt the new liquor policy, the Congress leader termed it “baseless.”
Mr. Sudheeran said the KPCC had entrusted the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Development Studies, a centre run by the Congress State unit, to study and submit a report regarding the recent proposal to increase taxes. “The party does not want to put the government in a predicament. It is up to the government to take its own policy decisions,” he said.
Speaking at a district-level party convention later, Mr. Sudheeran said the KPCC would put forth creative suggestions to the government. There was a debate on the increase in water tax. But 85 per cent of the recently proposed tax was from liquor and tobacco.
Mr. Sudheeran deplored the statement of Communist Party of India (Marxist) asking people to boycott the tax increase. It was unbecoming of a political party to adopt an anti-establishment stand.
“They have a democratic way to protest against policies. But this is to divert attention of people from political murders,” he said.
