UP minister draws public ire for saying Rajputs, Yadavs drink more liquor, protesters hurl tomatoes, eggs at his home

Lucknow: Protesters hurled tomatoes and eggs on Saturday at the home of Uttar Pradesh minister Om Prakash Rajbhar for saying that Rajputs and Yadavs consume more liquor than others. Youths, some of them wearing red caps, mobbed the minister’s official residence in Hazratganj area this afternoon, raising slogans and damaging his name plate. Reacting to the minister’s remarks, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav tweeted, “It is people who use intoxicants, not any caste.” Rajbhar had made the controversial remarks in Varanasi on Friday while arguing against drinking. [caption id=“attachment_4449441” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Uttar Pradesh police. AFP[/caption] “The maximum blame is put on Rajbhars, but the maximum liquor is consumed by Yadavs and Rajputs,” the minister for backward classes welfare had said. “This is their ancestral business,” he is heard saying on television. But he added that people from his own Rajbhar caste, as well people from other castes, also drink. “If you want to know the pain, ask any mother, sister or wife to whose homes their loved ones come drunk,” he said. Rajbhar heads the Suheldev Bharatiya Party, an ally of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. He has courted controversy earlier with his criticism of the performance of the Yogi Adityanath government in the state. In another controversial remark on drinking, he had said, “If someone offers you liquor, consume it but vote as per you discretion.” Police said nobody has been detained yet over the protests at the minister’s home. “We are probing the matter,” an officer said.