Delhi excise policy row: Kejriwal govt using ex-LG Baijal as 'sacrificial lamb', says BJP

The Delhi government is trying to divert attention from the irregularities in its excise policy and using former lieutenant governor Anil Baijal as a ''sacrificial lamb'', the BJP charged on Saturday.

BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra asked why Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who also heads the excise department, has spoken up now, months after the policy was implemented in November last year.

Earlier in the day, Sisodia accused Baijal of changing his stand over opening liquor vends in unauthorised areas and claimed that it led to a loss of thousands of crores of rupees to the Delhi government and windfall gains for some vendors.

Sisodia said he has sent the details of the matter to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and that he hoped that the agency will conduct a thorough probe into it.

''The Kejriwal government is trying to divert attention from irregularities in its excise policy by blaming (the former) LG as they need a sacrificial lamb since the CBI probe is going to uncover those irregularities,'' Patra said at a press conference.

He said, ''Sisodia is now accusing the former lieutenant governor of making last-minute changes to the policy implemented in November 2021. Were the AAP leaders sleeping for 10 months and could not see any fault in it?'' Baijal was the Delhi LG when the Arvind Kejriwal-led government prepared the new excise policy, which was implemented on November 17, 2021.

''The AAP government treated the new excise policy as a milch cow. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Sisodia are accused of spending crores of rupees earned through corruption in the liquor policy for contesting elections in Punjab,'' Patra claimed.

The BJP spokesperson alleged numerous irregularities in the implementation of the Excise Policy 2021-22 by the Delhi government.

Sisodia first exempted Rs 144 crore license fee of licensees during the coronavirus pandemic without Cabinet approval, which was taken only in July 2022, he claimed.

Liquor manufacturers and blacklisted companies were also allowed to enter retail sale, he added.

Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta said his party has been opposing the excise policy since day one and now the Kejriwal government's wrongdoings have been exposed.

''When all the allegations levelled by us are being proved and probe agencies are active, Sisodia has also started seeing flaws in his own policy,'' Gupta said.

Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, who had raised the issue of corruption in the excise policy, said he had urged the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in the House to not go ahead with it.

He said now it has become clear that the Kejriwal government's excise policy was wrong but it did not heed his warning.

The Kejriwal government withdrew the excise policy after incumbent LG V K Saxena last week recommended a CBI probe into alleged violation of rules and procedural lapses in the excise policy. It is preparing to run liquor vends under the old excise regime through its undertakings from September 1.

Saxena has also approved suspension of 11 officials, including then Delhi excise commissioner Arava Gopi Krishna and deputy excise commissioner Anand Kumar Tiwari, over ''serious lapses'' in the implementation of the policy, according to sources. PTI VIT DIV DIV