This is an archive article published on February 28, 2023
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Even BJP didn’t anticipate how Delhi excise issue would snowball
A party source said, "When the policy was announced, there was lack of consensus regarding how potent it could actually prove as a political issue... the announcement was timed in such a way that it was bound to seem progressive after several phases of lockdown."
When the policy was announced in March 2021, there was lack of consensus within the party regarding how potent it could actually prove as a political issue, a party official said. (Express Photo)
When the Delhi excise policy was first announced in 2021, the BJP was not sure it was an issue potent enough to dent the AAP or the Delhi government’s public image, party insiders say.
“When the policy was announced in March 2021, there was lack of consensus within the party regarding how potent it could actually prove as a political issue; the city was reopening in phases (after the Covid lockdown) and the announcement of the policy by the government was timed in such a way that it was bound to seem progressive after several phases of lockdown strictly regulating the availability and sale of liquor in Delhi,” a party source said.
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“We believed the best we could do was contend it on the basis of morality, lowering the drinking age and opposing the exit of the state government from the liquor trade against administrative precedence. It was just one of the many issues we sought to oppose for the sake of opposing a new policy being rolled out by the government in power,” the source added.
“On March 26, 2021, Leader of Opposition Ramvir Singh Bidhuri and then president of the BJP Delhi unit, Adesh Gupta, were asked to seek time from the then Lieutenant Governor, Anil Baijal, after its senior state leadership came around to the idea that the issue had more potential than met the eye,” a senior Delhi BJP leader said.
“They were asked to hand over a memorandum to Baijal which was allowed, at the last minute, to accommodate objections against the new policy — but it focused on the possibility of spurious liquor being pumped into the city and the privatisation of liquor trade for the sake of generating more revenue from the sector. Its legal dimensions became clear only later,” the leader added.
Meanwhile, a day after Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia was arrested by the CBI for “arbitrary and unilateral decisions” in his capacity as Excise Minister in relation to the policy, allegedly causing “huge financial losses to the exchequer”, BJP national spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia said the country’s investigating agencies were used to taking honest action against the corrupt under the law.
Bhatia also trained his guns at Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, questioning the “drama” around the arrest of “accused number one”.
“It is unfortunate that out of six ministers of Aam Aadmi Party, two ministers are behind bars on corruption charges. The crimes of both are very serious,” Bhatia said.
When the policy was announced in March 2021, there was lack of consensus within the party regarding how potent it could actually prove as a political issue, a party official said. (Express Photo) 
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