A day after Jalalpore BJP MLA Ramesh Chhotubhai Patel had claimed that beer was more freely available than water in his constituency in Navsari district, the party distanced itself from the legislator’s remark, saying that the word “beer” was used in jest. “He ( R C Patel) was giving example of his past experiences as earlier cold drinks were given in the villages in the coastal areas, in place of water. He had used the word “beer” in jest. After the BJP came to power, water distribution has reached coastal villages of the state,” Navsari BJP MLA and the party’s district unit president Naresh Patel said on Wednesday. On Tuesday, while taking part in the government’s water conservation campaign at Masa village in Gandevi taluka of Navsari district, Patel had said: “I went to Borsi Machhiwad area in my constituency. The party workers offered me cold drinks. When I told them why are you wasting money, asked for water, they replied, “sir, here you can easily get beer but not water. Here it is difficult to get water”. I know the situation in the coastal area in Navsari where there is a water scarcity. The situation is worst in coastal areas,” Ramesh Patel, who is also the deputy whip of the BJP in the Assembly, said. When contacted on Wednesday, the MLA tried to deflect the issue and instead said that he was referring to water crisis during the Congress rule. “I was referring to the situation of water problems in coastal villages when Congress was in power. In my speech I had said that when had gone to the house of our party worker in coastal Borsi Machhiwad village, we were offered soft drinks. I told him why waste money behind cold drinks, give me only water. The worker replied, sir, here it is difficult to get water but easy to get beer. My statement has been wrongfully played up on social media and news channels. There were water problems in the earlier days, but now many of the coastal villages in my constituency has no water problems,” the MLA said. However, the Congress hit back at the ruling BJP, saying that the MLA’s remark exposed the state of prohibition in Gujarat. “In the presence of Collector and senior police officers, R C Patel shocked the audience with his statement that beer was more easily available than water in a state which is under prohibition laws. This only shows how laws have been made stringent but are not being implemented seriously,” said Dipak Barot, Navsari district Congress president.
