Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut  intensified his attack against the BJP over the Maharashtra government’s recent decision to allow the sale of wine in supermarkets and walk-in stores. While the state government insists that the move is aimed at ensuring a more accessible marketing channel for Indian wineries, the Opposition has been vocal in its criticism. 

“(Devendra) Fadnavis government planned to make a policy of giving home delivery of liquor online, what was that? BJP MP Sadhvi Pragya said that liquor is medicine and drink it in small quantities,” Raut contended today.

A day earlier, the Rajya Sabha MP had insisted that “wine was not liquor”. The move, he had defended, would also boost farmers income. Hitting out at the BJP, he accused the Opposution party of “only opposing, but doing nothing” for farmers.  “If wine sale increases, farmers will benefit from it. We’ve done this to double farmers’ income,” he had said.

Maharashtra on Thursday cleared a proposal to sell wine in supermarkets and walk-in stores across the state at a flat annual licensing fee of Rs 5,000. The move has since prompted former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis to say that the Shiv Sena-led coalition government wanted to turn the state into “Madya-rashtra (liquor state).”

He also alleged that the decision was taken to facilitate the business interests of entrepreneurs who had started new liquor factories and alcohol agencies and smacked of a “deal”.

“I want to ask, in whose interest was this decision taken?… This is not a decision made in the interest of farmers. Some new people have started liquor factories or liquor agencies. You find out who they are. And the decision has been taken for the benefit of such people,” Fadnavis had remarked during a press conference in Panaji.