‘Sharab Nahi, Doodh Piyo’, says Uma Bharti after tying cow in front of liquor shop
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Uma Bharti, in an effort to get people to quit alcohol and turn to milk, came up with an unusual strategy. She tied stray cows in front of a liquor shop in Orchha town of Madhya Pradesh and fed them hay as she called upon people to drink cow milk and shun alcohol.
The former chief minister stressed that the government should not cash in on the habit of drinking. Notably, Bharti is spearheading a campaign against liquor consumption in the BJP-ruled state.
Standing in front of an alcohol shop, in Orchha, a town in Niwari district, after tying the cows, Bharti was heard raising the slogan “Sharab Nahi, Doodh Piyo (drink milk not liquor)”.
In the past as well, Bharti openly showed her anger for alcohol when she threw cow dung at the same liquor shop in June last year. In March 2022, she had hurled a stone at a liquor shop in Bhopal.
Fearing that she might do something similar again, a salesman at the outlet immediately downed its shutters.
Bharti said she, too, was to some extent responsible for the prevailing drinking problem and recalled that she had sought votes for the BJP in the 2003 Assembly polls and since then the party has been in power in Madhya Pradesh barring 15 months in 2018-2020 when the Congress ruled the state.
The saffron party leader had once pushed for total prohibition in the state. She is now seeking regularisation of alcohol sale in Madhya Pradesh, where Assembly polls are due by the year-end.
“Last time, the former Union minister had flung cow dung at this Orchha liquor shop. So this time I downed the shutters of the shop,” salesman Rampal told PTI.
He further told the publication that Bharti addressed people who had gathered near the shop and said that the government should not cash in on the habit of drinking.
Rampal said that Bharti praised Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, calling him a “courageous” leader, who has accepted that the existing excise policy has some flaws and promised to draft a new one in consultation with yoga guru Ramdev.
(With inputs from agencies)
