Amit Shah accuses Congress of giving ‘political colour’ to hooch tragedy

Replying to a debate on the budgetary demands of his department in the Assembly,Shah criticised the Congress for boycotting the House for the last few days over the issue of the hooch tragedy. He said: “The boycott suggests how serious the Congress members are about the law and order situation in the state.”

“If such a hooch tragedy happens by accident,it is the duty of the Opposition party to make constructive suggestions to the government (to initiate corrective measures) for preventing such incidents in future. The Congress has,however,made it a political issue and continued to boycott the House.”

Shah asserted that the government was committed to implement the prohibition policy effectively in Gujarat,and that there was no question of relaxing it.

“On the fourth day of the Ahmedabad hooch tragedy,Chief Minister Narendra Modi had resolved to amend the existing prohibition laws in the state,which followed the Cabinet’s decision to bring an amendment Bill during the current Assembly budget session,” Shah said.

He added: “Had the previous Congress Chief Ministers cared to amend these laws and make them more stringent,the hooch tragedy in Ahmedbad would not have occurred”.

Gujarat is the only state in the country which has been implementing the prohibition policy,he said,contending,“It’s not that hooch tragedies take place only in Gujarat. People consume spurious liquor and die in non-prohibition states too.”

Arguing that such incidents cannot be linked with the prohibition policy,he said as many as 1,251 people had died across the country in 2007 alone.