Gehlot, Gujarat CM trade barbs over liquor

Gehlot posts 3 tweets in reply to Rupani’s demand to seek apology

JAIPUR: Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot is not letting the issue of liquor sale in Gujarat die down, four days after he stoked it leading to Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani seeking an apology from him.

Far from apology, Gehlot continued to add fuel to the issue. On Wednesday, he posted three tweets to take it forward.

“CM Rupani ji knows very well and most people in #Gujarat know that liquor is smuggled into Gujarat from neighboring states. He should have coordinated with govts of MP, Maharashtra, Haryana & Rajasthan to check this,” Gehlot wrote in his first tweet.

The second tweet said: “#Gujarat CM should have requested neighboring states to devise an effective joint plan so that smuggling of liquor stops, as Punjab CM has been doing regarding smuggling of drugs into Punjab.”

This was followed by this: “But #Gujarat government and Rupani ji have never spoken about it. They have never sought cooperation from neighboring states so that the ban on liquor in Gujarat is strictly enforced.”

The war of words between the two CMs began on Sunday when Gehlot said that despite the prohibition, alcohol was freely available in Gujarat.

He said that during his stays in Gujarat for the 2017 Assembly polls, he found that liquor was freely available and despite the ban “liquor consumption is maximum” in the state.

Rupani called this an “insult to 6.5 crore Gujaratis” and sought an apology from the Rajasthan CM the next day. “If Gehlot has the courage, he will come out and apologise for his disrespecting words against crores of Gujaratis and calling them drunkards. I demand him to come out and apologise,” Rupani said. However, Gehlot found support from leaders in Gujarat. Former Gujarat chief minister Shankarsinh Vaghela of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supported Gehlot’s statement. “There is not a single km in Gujarat where you can’t find liquor,” he said. The Gujarat state Congress came out with a release in which it gave data about liquor seized in Gujarat in 2018-19. “Why is the chief minister mum about this?” the release signed by GPCC spokesperson Manish Doshi asked.

› They (Rupani’s govt) have never sought cooperation from neighboring states so that the ban on liquor in Gujarat is strictly enforced

ASHOK GEHLOT, Rajasthan CM ›

If Gehlot has the courage, he will come out and apologise for his disrespecting words against crores of Gujaratis and calling them drunkards VIJAY RUPANI, Gujarat CM