Uma Bharti hurls stone at liquor shop in Bhopal; Twitteratti in a tizzy

The former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Uma Bharti, who has been demanding prohibition in the state, vandalised a liquor shop in Bhopal on Sunday (March 13). Bharti had earlier announced that she would protest outside liquor shops with a ‘stick’ if liquor was not banned in the state.

Last year, Bharti, who had said that she would get liquor banned in the state by January 15, 2022 or “hit the streets”, was surrounded by a group of people who filmed her while she hurled a stone at liquor bottles lined up in a shop smashing them.

Twitter users mocked her highly-staged move to protest against the liquor policy in the state.

One Twitter user wrote: Can goons / ‘activists’ get inside any liquor shop/bar and throw stones or is it allowed only to politicians with camera?

Also read: A tale of two booze taxes: Maharashtra cuts excise, MP plans surcharge

In February, it seemed as if Uma Bharti, who has promised to “throw a surprise” in the coming state assembly election in 2023, had softened her stance on her campaign against liquor saying that she isn’t a ‘Tees Maar Khan’ to carry out such an attack on her own government calling MP CM Shivraj Chouhan a “sadhu”.

The Madhya Pradesh government, which had announced a new excise policy just two days after her deadline in January, took the opposite route of prohibition and decided to make alcohol cheaper by 20 per cent in a bid to “make them practical”.

Further, Shivraj Chouhan’s government reduced the excise duty on foreign liquor too by 10-13 per cent. Shops have also been allowed to sell foreign and country liquor together. Under the new Excise Policy, counters selling liquor can be opened at all the airports in MP, while licenses for (opening) such outlets can now be issued in select supermarkets in Indore, Bhopal, Jabalpur and Gwalior at a fixed fee.

A home bar license at an annual fee of ₹50,000 was also offered to applicants with an annual individual income of ₹1 crore or more. Liquor producers have also been cleared to make wines from black plums besides grapes. People can now keep four times as much liquor at home than before.

At present, there are 2,544 country liquor and 1,061 foreign liquor shops in the state.