Continuing her agitation against the liquor shops in Madhya Pradesh, former Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Uma Bharti threw cow dung at a liquor shop in Orchha town in Niwari district.
Bharti has been demanding total prohibition in the state for quite some time.
Earlier, she threw stones at a liquor shop in Bhopal and recently she also sat in protest in front of a liquor shop in the state capital. However, this is the first time she has expressed her anger outside Bhopal.
Barti had earlier warned that she will take her agitation against liquor and use of drugs across the state. Bharti in a tweet claimed the shop was not approved for the spot where it was located, and that it was a crime to open such an outlet in the holy town of Orchha.
However, police maintained that the liquor shop was located at the place where it was sanctioned. A video surfaced on social media which showed Bharti throwing cow dung at the liquor shop on Tuesday evening in Orchha.
She was furious to see a liquor shop in the religious town which is famous for the Ram Raja temple, located 330 km from the state capital Bhopal. In the video clip, Bharti was heard telling the person shooting the video, “See, I have thrown the cow dung and not pelted stones,” she said.
In a series of tweets on Tuesday night, Bharti said, “The shop, located at the main entrance of Orchha, is not approved for its current location, but for a distant village. The people and our organisation members staged protests against it continuously.”
In another tweet, she said people submitted memorandums to the government and repeatedly appealed to the administration to remove this shop.
“By all means, the people’s reaction against this shop cannot be termed a crime, because opening a shop here (at a religious place) is a bigger crime,” she said.
Bharti said she got information that this shop remained open even when five lakh lamps were lit on Ram Navami (in April this year) under the ‘Deepotsav’ programme organised in Orchha, which she said is considered as holy as Ayodhya.
“That’s why I have sprinkled some cow dung from a holy cowshed on the liquor store,” she said.