Liquor stores in Delhi will stay open during Holi this year. Back in January, the Delhi government quietly dropped Holi from its list of ‘dry days’, those days when you can’t buy alcohol in the city.
That same January order still keeps Republic Day, Maha Shivratri, Id-ul-Fitr, Ram Navami, and Mahavir Jayanti as dry days, at least for now. These dates all fall between January and March.
The government also made it clear: if your liquor shop has to close on any of these dry days, don’t expect any compensation. But if you’re in a hotel or guesthouse with a license, you can go ahead and serve drinks to your guests. The rules don’t touch you.
For years, Holi meant a dry day in Delhi. The idea was to curb trouble and keep things under control. The only time that changed was in 2022, when the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) under Arvind Kejriwal slashed the number of dry days to just three.
The twist? The BJP, which runs Delhi now and has officially removed Holi from the dry day list, once blasted Kejriwal for doing almost the same thing.
Back then, BJP’s Adesh Gupta said, “We had 21 dry days to honour national holidays and respect religious sentiments. I don’t get why Kejriwal sides with the liquor mafia.
Delhi sells over ₹50 crore worth of alcohol every day, and everyone knows why Kejriwal supports them.”
Now, with the BJP flipping its stance, there’s bound to be some political heat, especially after Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia got acquitted in the liquor policy case that made headlines.
