The Indian state of Bihar’s latest decision to ban the sale and consumption of all kinds of alcohol is amusing. This political ploy has been tried in different Indian states umpteen times with predictable results. Rampant bootlegging, increase in corruption, illegal brewing of local liquor, frequent deaths due to consuming rotgut, loss of revenue, which the states cannot afford and finally reversing the policy shamelessly.
There was hardly any significant drinking habits in the Indian society in the 1950s and 1960s. It started increasing from the 1970s and has now reached new heights. The rich usually drink for pleasure, the middle class for fashion and the poor to drown their troubles and sorrows.
After the liberalisation of the Indian economy in the 1990s, the rich got richer, the middle class grew more affluent and the poor got poorer. India tasted more of foreign liquor, more of foreign-made Indian liquor and locally produced cheap liquor. As a result, the states raked in revenue in lakhs of crores. Drinking habits are hard to break and in poor families, particularly, it brings suffering and misery to members who do not drink, especially the elder parents, women and children.
The problem lies with India’s political rulers, who have not learnt that you cannot treat a social behavioural problem with a legislative solution. Actually, millions die each year in India due to various forms of tobacco use. Why aren’t they banning tobacco cultivation and tobacco products?
So imposing a ban, however laudable it might look on the surface, is nothing but a cheap political gimmick destined to fail like all such attempts in the past. Maybe, if we are really serious about this, we must insist on making the whole of India alcohol-free, tobacco-free and drug-free. Any takers?
— The reader is an Indian training manager based in Dubai
