New Delhi: The BJP on Sunday attacked the INDIA bloc over the hooch tragedy in Tamil Nadu, with Union minister Nirmala Sitharaman demanding that the Congress break its silence on the issue and pull up its ally DMK for the loss of lives in the incident.
The BJP also said it hopes 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 victims.
Union Finance Minister Sitharaman also demanded that the case be handed over to the CBI for investigation. "You have no statement coming from Congress president (Mallikarjun Kharge) or the former Congress president (Rahul Gandhi), who rushes to the South seeking people's vote to win elections," she charged.
The ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu has had a hand in supporting those selling spurious liquor in the state, Sitharaman alleged. The incident cannot be fully inquired into if the state government is dealing with the probe. And therefore I demand that this inquiry should be given to the CBI and immediate action should be taken to arrest those behind this, she told PTI.
I don't think justice will be served if inquiry and the whole matter is left only to the Tamil Nadu government, she added. Sitharaman said the Tamil Nadu government has shown total incompetence in handling the issue. The state government has not even allowed a discussion in assembly in this matter, she added.
Liquor is flowing like water. Illicit liquor is killing people. There is drug menace in Tamil Nadu today, young people are losing their lives and no action has been taken by the state government, Sitharaman claimed.
Addressing a press conference at the BJP headquarters here, party's national spokesperson Sambit Patra also slammed Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin and asked him to clarify if he was "complicit" in the incident which took place in the state's Kallakurichi district.
"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 'INDI Alliance' are silent on it," Patra said.
It seems they are silent on this issue as it does not serve their politics, the BJP leader charged. "When the Parliament session starts tomorrow, I hope INDI Alliance 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," Patra said.
"Mahatma Gandhi was against illicit liquor. Gandhiji's statue is waiting for you, his principles are waiting for you," he added. Hitting out at Chief Minister Stalin, Patra accused his government and leaders of the DMK of being complicit in the hooch tragedy.
"In his first statement, the district collector had 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 consuming 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 a 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," Patra said.
"Shouldn't the CM come out with a statement," the BJP leader asked.
