Uma Bharti enters liquor shop, breaks bottles to demand closing of 'illegal' outlet

In her true maverick style, Madhya Pradesh ex-chief minister Uma Bharti entered a liquor shop in Bhopal on Sunday evening and hurled a stone to break a few bottles in a protest against the failure of the administration to close down the 'illegal' liquor outlet.

While the Congress has taken a jibe at the BJP government for the ex-CM's action which amounts to breaking the law, the BJP has distanced itself from the episode, saying that it was an individual campaign of Bharti.

Bharti, who has been repeatedly calling for a campaign against liquor prohibition in Madhya Pradesh during the past one year, posted a video of her action on her social media accounts, issuing a warning to the Bhopal administration to close down the shop and the adjoined 'ahata' (open space to serve liquor) within a week.

On her Twitter account, Bharti said “There is a series of liquor shops at Barkheda Pathani Azad Nagar in BHEL area (Bhopal) in a settlement of labourers and liquor is served in a big 'ahata'. This is a settlement of labourers, there is a temple nearby, and a school of small kids. When girls and women stand on their terraces, the inebriated people embarrass them by passing urine facing them. Entire earning of the labourers is spent in these (liquor) shops. Women and residents of the locality have protested against the shops, staged dharna because the shops are in violation of government policy. Administration has every time assured that they will be closed down but this did not happen in the past several years. I have today warned the administration to close down the shop within a week,” Bharti said.

In the video, the ex-CM is seen casually entering the shop in the presence of her security personnel and hurling a big stone at one of the racks, breaking some bottles in the process. She is then seen leaving the shop with the same cool attitude.

Reacting to the incident, the media cell chief of MP Congress, Jitu Patwari posted an oblique tweet expressing gratefulness to Bharti for her action, praising her courage and terming her 'sherni' (tigress). “You have made me speechless today. First time it is felt that there is someone in BJP whose talks and actions do not differ. The stone that was picked up today will become part of the foundation of prohibition in MP. It is hoped that this will break the slumber of (chief minister) Shivraj Singh Chouhan, so that liquor does not break any more homes in the state,” Patwari tweeted along with Bharti's video. 

In another tweet he took a jibe at the government as well as the 'violent' nature of the protest, saying, “cheap liquor, liquor in every village, facility of delivering liquor at home, 3500 new liquor shops – the stone has not been hurled at liquor shop but at the policy of Chouhan government. BJP has turned Madhya Pradesh into Madya (liquor) Pradesh. But we are Gandhians.”

Another Congress spokesperson Narendra Saluja said that Bharti should not have taken law into her hand as there are many democratic ways of protest available. He said that the fact that an ex-CM has to pick up a stone to make efforts towards prohibition in her own government shows how helpless she has become.

Saluja further took a jibe at the government for remaining silent on the entire episode. Addressing a tweet to state home minister Narottam Mishra, Saluja said, “I am also against liquor in MP and I too want prohibition in the state. The way ex-CM Uma Bharti has protested against a liquor shop today, I also want to stage a similar protest. Please give me permission.”

Meanwhile, BJP state spokesperson Hitesh Bajpai sought to distance the party from the episode. He said that the incident was part of a campaign for prohibition personally decided by Uma Bharti and she has elucidated the reasons for her action and her decision. “The incident itself is a matter between Uma ji and the administration. This is not a programme decided by the BJP and therefore we can't make any comments on it,” Bajpai said in a video statement.