"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.