Pubdate: Sat, 03 Nov 2007
Source: Hindu, The (India)
Copyright: 2007 The Hindu
Contact:  http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/874

"OPIUM" ROW TAKES NEW TURN

JAIPUR: The raging controversy over guests consuming  "opium", as 
part of hospitality, at a function  organised by senior BJP leader 
Jaswant Singh at his  ancestral village in Barmer district of 
Rajasthan on Wednesday has taken a new turn with a local 
citizen  filing a complaint under the Narcotic Drugs 
and  Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act in the Special Court  in 
Jodhpur on Friday. Ten persons, including Mr.  Jaswant Singh and 
three senior members of the Rajasthan  Cabinet, are named in the complaint.

The complainant, Om Prakash Vishnoi of Jodhpur, said he  was 
approaching the court as the police did not take  any action even 
three days after senior leaders of the  ruling BJP violated the law 
openly by  offering/consuming opium at a "reyan" (get-together) in 
Jassol. The complainant has sought action against the  accused under 
Sections 8, 17, 18, 27 and 29 of the NDPS  Act and also filing of an 
FIR at the Balotra police  station under which Jassol falls.

Ministers Named

Those mentioned in the complaint include BJP national  vice-president 
Kailash Meghwal, former State BJP  presidents Lalit Kishore 
Chaturvedi and Raghuveer  Kaushal, ruling party chief whip Mahavir 
Prasad Jain, and two party MLAs Yogeshwar Garg and Shankar 
Singh.  The Ministers in the list are Ghanshyam Tiwari, Narpat  Singh 
Rajvi and Madan Dilwar. The court is to take up  the complaint on Saturday.

The "reyan" by Mr. Jaswant Singh and his son Manavendra  Singh who is 
the BJP Member of Parliament from Barmer,  was apparently to mark the 
successful end of a  "padayatra" they had carried out in Barmer 
district.  The ones who attended it, however, were mostly those  who 
are opposed to Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje. They  also had a 
three-hour discussion on the political  developments in the State.

The "amal" (the traditional offering of opium to a  respected guest) 
offered at the Jassol gathering caught  the attention of the public 
as local newspapers next  day carried a number of photographs in 
which Mr.  Jaswant Singh was shown as offering fistful of 
"opium"  dissolved in water to individual guests in the true  Marwari 
spirit of "manuhar" (hospitality).

Though Mr. Jaswant Singh the very next day explained  that it was not 
"afiim (opium), which was offered but  "kesar" (saffron) dissolved in 
water, those who know  the customs of the area insist that the 
offering should  have had a flavour of opium to make it truly traditional.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman