The confrontation between the BJP and the AAP took a new turn with the Central Bureau of Investigation conducting a raid at Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia’s official residence on Friday. The CBI action comes after the Lt.Governor V.K.Saxena asked the premier agency to ascertain the facts of the excise policy (since suspended) that was introduced by the elected Delhi government last year. The allegation is that the AAP dispensation favoured certain private parties for a consideration, something which has been vehemently denied by both Arvind Kejriwal and Sisodia. In a series of tweets, Sisodia welcomed the CBI probe and said that he was being targeted because the BJP and the Centre could not see good work being done by anybody. The CBI has registered a FIR against him and 15 others for the alleged irregularities. Kejriwal also said that he was fully with his deputy and the truth would come out shortly. The Lt.Governor had earlier suspended nearly a dozen officials for their role in what is being described as a big scam. The government has rolled back the liquor policy introduced by it and has gone back to its earlier policy where public sector undertakings were dispensing liquor at various outlets run by them. Many private players have also surrendered their licenses and are waiting for the new policy. Sisodia has claimed that the earlier Lt.Governor, Anil Baijal should be investigated to ascertain his role. Whether that happens or not is something only the CBI can determine. The new Excise policy had made serving of liquor at various restaurants, bars and hotels very easy and the BJP had accused the AAP of turning Delhi into the liquor capital of the country. The issue saw many heated exchanges between the two parties till the Lt.Governor stepped in and ordered a probe. The Chief Secretary too is understood to be against the policy which now stands scrapped for the time being. The AAP has alleged that the BJP wanted to damage its leaders since Kejriwal was emerging as a possible alternative at the national level. Even in Punjab, the allegation against the AAP government is that it was encouraging private players for a consideration. This too has been denied but the war of words continues. Till 1977, Delhi had mostly private outlets run by reputed companies which would sell alcohol. However, when the Janata Party came to power in 1977, it brought in private players who were subsequently replaced by public sector undertakings run liquor stores. This too had attracted criticism since it was felt that the public sector undertakings should be doing what they were tasked to do instead of selling liquor and giving a false impression of their efficiency by showing huge revenue gains. In adjoining Haryana, liquor has always been sold by private players for many years and there was a competition between the private operators of Delhi and Haryana over the prices. Surprisingly, on Independence Day, which has always been a dry day, liquor shops in Gurgaon remained open. Coming back to the BJP-AAP war, the last word on this has not been heard as yet.
