The new Bihar excise bill was tabled, debated and passed by majority vote in the State Assembly on Monday amid protest by BJP-led Opposition parties. Earlier, the BJP brought a proposal for amendments in the bill which fell through with only 46 votes in its favour and 150 again. Parties of the ruling alliance had issued a whip for their MLAs to vote in support of the amended excise bill.
The Opposition slammed the bill as “black law and draconian” while the ruling grand alliance leaders termed it as “landmark bill” that would ensure implementation of total prohibition in Bihar.
When the debate on the bill was set in motion, BJP leader Nand Kishore Yadav, who is also the leader of Opposition in the House, attacked the Nitish Kumar government for bringing a law that could result in innocent people being false implicated.
“Which law says that if someone in the family is caught drinking, all adult members of the family should be sent to jail? Are we living in the era of Emergency?” asked Mr Yadav. He said his party would not accept the law in its current form and proposed certain amendments.
Nitish’s responseWhen the proposal for amendments fell through, BJP MLAs staged a walkout and led a protest march to Raj Bhawan.
Responding to the charges made against the new excise bill, Nitish Kumar said “all sorts of misinformation are being spread against the excise bill which was passed to implement prohibition effectively in the state.”
“This bill is for total prohibition and to plug the loopholes in the law…but all sorts of misinformation is being spread regarding its provisions,” the chief minister said.
Query for BJPHe also sought to know the liquor policy of the RSS and the BJP. “I want to know what is their liquor policy…when the Prime Minister was the CM of Gujarat he had followed the ban on liquor in the State, so what restrains him from implementing prohibition in the country, or at least in BJP-ruled States?”
