Congress never banned liquor sale in state on Id during 15 years of its rule: MIM
The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) on Saturday accused the Congress of playing politics on the issue of declaring Id-e-Milad as a dry day in Maharashtra. AIMIM MLA Waris Pathan said the Congress had never banned liquor sale in the state on Id when they were in power for 15 years. However, Mr Pathan claimed that the Congress raised this issue this year only after the AIMIM demanded it and chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has promised to consider it positively.
This year, Id-e-Milad which falls on December 24, could be declared as dry day in Maharashtra. Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil has claimed that he has got an assurance from chief minister Devendra Fadnavis that liquor sale in the state would be banned on Prophet Mohammed Paigambar’s birthday (Id-e-Milad).
Mr Vikhe-Patil on Friday led a delegation of Muslim legislators, who met the CM seeking a ban on liquor sale on Id. Mr Vikhe-Patil said, “The CM agreed to our demand and told the delegation that Prophet Mohammed Paigambar’s birth day will be announced as dry day.
The Opposition leader argued the demand was appropriate as the Prophet gave the message to the world to keep away from alcohol. “It was 1,400 years ago that the Prophet told the people that they should not consume alcoholic drinks. Id-e-Milad is his birthday and therefore the delegation demanded a dry day,” he said.
Congress MLA Arif Naseem Khan and Samajwadi Party MLA Abu Azmi were also part of the delegation. Apart from them, other MLAs, including Abdul Sattar, Amin Patel, Shiakh Asif and Aslam Khan were also signatories to the memorandum given to the CM.
Interestingly, AIMIM legislators Waris Pathan and Imtiyaz Jalil had given a separate memorandum to the CM on the same issue earlier in the day. When contacted, Mr Pathan said, “We were the first one to raise the issue with the CM. We said that like meat sale was banned for four days during Paryushan to respect religious sentiments of the Jain community, sale of liquor should be banned for the entire day on Id to respect religious sentiments of Muslims. The CM has given a positive response and said that the government would take a decision on it soon.”
When asked why two separate memorandums were given on the issue, Mr Pathan said, “The Congress is only following us for political reasons. If they were serious about it, they should have banned the liquor sale on Id in the last 15 years when they were in power. They had banned meat sale during Paryshan.”
