'Is My Liver Made of Iron...?': Punjab CM Mann's Rebuttal on Drinking Alcohol Day & Night For Several Years

Taking up allegations of alcoholism against him, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann asked that if he was drinking every day and night for the past twelve years — as people say — would he be alive right now and if that’s the case, is his liver made of iron?

Speaking on the Television show Aap ki Aadalat, Mann said how people constantly call him an alcoholic who cannot stop drinking.

“Tell me something, people say I drink everyday for the past 12 years… any person who does that… They are not alive no? so that means my liver is made of iron?…” he said as the audience laughed and applauded him.

“When they have no point.. they say I am drinking. I am awake everyday at 6 am and I ask for work file..As much work has not been done in 75 years, has been done in the last one and a quarter years..” Mann added.

Mann further highlighted how under his government, 88 percent of houses have now free electricity in the state, and that there was never as much coal available as there is today.

“There should be intention to work,” the AAP leader said.

This comes as time and again, Mann has been associated with liquor consumption in the past. In January 2019, Mann had publicly taken a vow to quit alcohol in the presence of AAP supremo and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his mother at a rally.

Last year in April, Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) had alleged that Mann had entered into Takht Damdama Sahib in an inebriated condition. The organisation also sought an apology from the Punjab CM.

In a release issued in Amritsar, SGPC senior vice president of Raghujit Singh Virk said that the chief minister under the influence of alcohol visited a highly respected spiritual site of the Sikh community and “violated the Sikh rehat maryada (code of conduct)”. He asked Mann to admit his mistake and apologise to the entire Sikh community.

“The conduct of CM showed that he did not extend the due respect and honour to the Guru Ghar. In this way he lowered the prestige of constitutional office of CM, too,” the release added.