Upping the ante against the BJP and its Government in Gujarat over the recent hooch tragedy, the Congress on Friday alleged that the illicit liquor trade is "flourishing" in the State under the protection of the "ruling forces" and demanded a probe by a high court judge into the death of over 40 people in the state due to consumption of spurious liquor.
Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi expressed concern over the business of spurious liquor and drugs in the BJP-ruled state and asked which ruling forces are giving protection to the "mafia" involved in it.
As many as 42 people from Botad and neighbouring Ahmedabad have died so far after consuming spurious liquor on July 25 even while 97 people are admitted to hospitals in Bhavnagar, Botad and Ahmedabad, according to Gujarat Minister of State for Home Harsh Sanghavi.
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra attacked the BJP over the deaths and asked who is responsible for this tragedy. "By putting the label of prohibition on the top, who are the people of the government giving protection to the illicit liquor business?" she asked. "Bapu's land wants answers to these questions. The BJP government is running away from the questions of providing protection to the illicit liquor business," she said in a tweet in Hindi.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in Gujarat on Thursday as well as on Friday and he neither met the victims's families nor conveyed his condolences to them. "Why so much insensitivity?" Ramesh asked in a tweet, tagging Modi.
Addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters here, Congress's media department head Pawan Khera and Rajya Sabha member Amee Yajnik urged the prime minister to speak up on the deaths due to consumption of spurious liquor and meet the victims' families during his Gujarat visit.
Khera said it has come to light that 600 litres of "methyl alcohol" (methanol) were brought from Ahmedabad to Botad district, water was mixed in it and it was sold in different areas due to which people either lost their lives or suffered kidney damage.