DNA Special: How Chhapra hooch tragedy is causing political turmoil for Nitish Kumar’s Bihar govt

In a tragic incident in Bihar, over 40 people died after consuming spurious liquor in Chhapra city, while around 30 others are left battling for their lives in hospitals. Despite this, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has refused to provide any compensation to the families.

When asked if he will be giving compensation to the families of those who died in the Chhapra hooch tragedy, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar had a bold yet outrageous answer – If you drink alcohol, you will die. This answer came as a slap on the face of all the victims of poisonous liquor in the state.

It must be noted that it was the Bihar government under Nitish Kumar that decided to impose a prohibition on liquor, making Bihar a completely dry state. The question remains – why is there a business of illicit liquor despite prohibition and why is the Nitish Kumar government silent?

Both Bihar CM Nitish Kumar and his deputy Tejashwi Yadav came under the radar of the opposition BJP after making outrageous and insensitive statements regarding the deaths of those who consumed spurious liquor in Chhapra.

While Kumar said, “Agar sharab peeyoge to maroge”, Tejashwi Yadav compared Bihar to Gujarat, saying that Amit Shah’s home ground has had more liquor deaths as compared to Bihar, also citing the example of Punjab.

The Nitish government has no sympathy for those who died due to drinking poisonous liquor and has not shown any efforts to crack down on the suppliers and dealers of such alcohol yet in Chhapra. People have only one question – despite the prohibition, why is liquor still available in Bihar? Who is to be held responsible for this?

The truth is that after the prohibition in Bihar, neither the system has changed nor the thinking of government officials has changed. If something has changed, it is the politics in the state. Earlier also, the opposition used to oppose prohibition and even today the opposition is doing the same. That is, the opposition's stand on prohibition in Bihar has not changed. Only the opposition itself has changed.

Prohibition came into force in Bihar in 2016. Nitish Kumar was then the Chief Minister of NDA. At that time, the BJP used to defend the decision of prohibition, which was also its rajdharma. But now that the BJP is in opposition, Rajdharma has forced it to oppose prohibition in Bihar.

A question should be asked to BJP – when the saffron party was in power, did people not die of poisonous liquor in Bihar? Earlier, BJP used to support the decision to ban liquor in the state, now it has made a complete u-turn on its earlier policies. The same goes for Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav.

Earlier, Yadav used to allege collusion between the liquor mafia and the police, saying that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, instead of taking action against the mafia and smugglers, keeps threatening to teach a tough lesson to the drinkers.

Despite the tragedy in Chhapra and the political turmoil in Bihar, the only person who seems to be in the clear is Nitish Kumar. The Bihar CM is the only one who hasn’t changed his stance on the liquor ban over the years, while both BJP and RJD can be seen making a U-turn.

READ | ‘Jo sharab peeyega wo marega’: Bihar CM Nitish Kumar’s bold words as Chhapra hooch tragedy death toll reaches 39