Modi must take responsibility and quit home portfolio,demands Cong

Taking umbrage to Speaker Ashok Bhatt’s refusal to the Congress’ plea for a two-hour debate on the hooch tragedy in the House,Gohil said,“When such a tragedy had occurred in Vadodara during the Congress regime way back in 1989,it was Ashok Bhatt,then in the Opposition party,who had accused the then Chief Minister of being the main culprit of the incident. And yet,the ruling Congress had then allowed the Opposition to have a two-hour discussion on the issue in the Assembly without going into technicalities.”

Not only this,the then Congress Government had asked its Home Minister Popatlal Vyas to tender his resignation on moral grounds in the wake of the 1989 hooch tragedy in Vadodara,Gohil said. He also alleged that several notorious bootleggers across Gujarat were enjoying political patronage of the present BJP rulers in the state.

Making a startling revelation,the Opposition Congress leader alleged that “notorious bootlegger” Rasik Sodha Parmar,who is also a BJP councillor in Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation,was the main person behind the hooch tragedy in Ahmedabad. Parmar was also the Mahemdabad municipality president between March 2003 and September 2005,and had been detained under PASA and was refused bail by the Gujarat High Court,he said.

Gohil also alleged that Parmar runs a huge distillery in Bodi Roja area near Mahemdabad,and gives Rs 1.5 lakh every week to the police in hafta. Parmar has employed as many as 14 agents and sub-agents to sell liquor,and Arvind Solanki who died in the Ahmedabad hooch tragedy two days ago was part of Parmar’s network.

“The Opposition Congress wanted to raise this issue in the House today,but the Speaker didn’t allow us a two-hour debate,” he said.