BJP Questions Opposition Silence over TN Hooch Deaths
New Delhi: The Parliament session is expected to be a stormy affair with an upbeat Opposition, with its increased tally of Lok Sabha MPs, all set to corner the government on issues like Neet, railway safety and protem Speaker, while the BJP-led NDA government is ready to counter the Opposition and made its intent clear by questioning the INDIA bloc leaders' silence on the hooch tragedy in DMK-ruled Tamil Nadu.
Sharpening its attack on the Opposition on the eve of the first session of the 18th Lok Sabha, the BJP labelled the hooch tragedy, in which over 50 people have died, a “state-sponsored murder". The BJP alleged that the INDIA bloc leaders are silent on the issue as it does not serve their politics and asked Tamil Nadu chief minister M.K. Stalin to clarify if he was "complicit" in the incident that took place in the state's Kallakurichi district.
Addressing the media at the BJP headquarters in the national capital, BJP national spokesperson and MP Sambit Patra hoped that the Opposition alliance leaders who have not spoken on the issue will at least show repentance by gathering near the Mahatma Gandhi statue in the Parliament complex and "observing a moment of silence for the lives lost".
"More than 56 people have died... Many are still critical. More than 40 of those who died consuming spurious liquor are Dalits. This is state-sponsored murder and I am surprised that the Congress' Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Sonia Gandhi, leaders of the DMK, and those of other constituents of the INDIA bloc, are silent on it," Mr Patra said, adding that it seems they are silent on this issue as it does not serve their politics.
"When the Parliament session starts tomorrow, I hope INDIA bloc leaders will go to Mahatma Gandhi's statue to observe silence, wearing black bands on their arms and repent for the death of people in the hooch tragedy," Mr Patra said.
"Mahatma Gandhi was against illicit liquor. Gandhi Ji's statue is waiting for you, his principles are waiting for you," he added.
Hitting out at the Tamil Nadu chief minister, the BJP MP accused his government and the leaders of the DMK of being complicit in the hooch tragedy.
"In his first statement, the district collector initially denied that people died after consuming spurious liquor. He was asked to do so because the Assembly session was scheduled to start the very next day," the BJP leader alleged, citing some media reports.
Due to the district collector's denial, those who had stock of the spurious liquor continued to consume it and more than a dozen people died the next day, he added.
"Of course, the (Tamil Nadu) government is complicit in this. Look at the behaviour of the chief minister. I am astonished that a tragedy of such magnitude has struck the state, yet the chief minister is absent. Till the time I came to hold this press conference, he had not visited the bereaved family members of those who died," said Mr Patra, adding, "Shouldn't the CM come out with a statement."