To exist India as a sacred and peaceful country in the world ,
alcohol should be prohibited in India. Between the 1920 and 1930s to almost two
decades after independence alcohol was banned in major part of India. The
teachings of Mahatma Gandhi inspired people of India to fare the anti alcohol
protest. As a result of these protests large portions of present day Assam,
Madhya Pradesh, Odessa, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra , Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh,
Karnataka and Kerala had implemented prohibition since about 1937. By 1954,
almost one-fourth of India was under prohibition and central government had
targeted nationwide prohibition by April 1958. But unfortunately, in 1967 all
but two of them Mizoram and Gujarat repealed the law. In this way, Haryana and
Mizoram have previously enforced but later repealed prohibition.
Really speaking, it’s never an easy decision for a state
government to declare a ban on alcohol in India. That’s primarily because
liquor revenues are not easy to ignore and have consistently formed the bulwark
of government funds. The long term evil consequences are not seen by the
government. So, Indian’s experience with prohibition is called variegated.
Alcohol prohibition in India is in force in
the states of Gujarat, Nagaland and parts of Manipur , as well as in the Union
Territory of Lakshadweep. Kerala has been implementing prohibition in a phased
manner since 2014. Bihar banned alcohol sale on 1 April 2016. All other Indian
states and union territories permit the sale of alcohol. But does prohibition
really work ? It is no secret that states with prohibition have failed to fully
control the sale or consumption of alcohol. Nagaland has been a dry state since
1989; but it borders Assam, which helps keeping an uninterrupted flow of
alcohol into the state. In Gujarat alcohol is supplied from Mumbai , Abu Road
and Daman and Diu to quench the thirst of Guajarati’s flock. On the other hand,
in Bihar people go to wine shops of Jharkhand, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh to
drink. So it is called that ban on alcohol is nothing but a political gimmick.
Prohibition of alcohol will be successful if the Government of
India take necessary steps to ban alcohol all over the nation. The state
governments should be convinced to amend the law to enforce ban on liquor sale,
manufacture and consumption. It should be clearly stated that ‘what it is
gaining as revenue from the sale of alcohol is a fraction of what the state
would have to spend on curing a major social malaise.’( D.N. Bezboruah)
In Assam, prohibition of alcohol is an important duty of the new
government to develop Assam economically, morally and to save the new
generation from falling into the hell. But the task is not so easy. In the year
1992, then Chief Minister of Assam Hiteswar Saikia has started to issue
licenses to surrendered extremists for running liquor shops in the state. The
process has been going on and every government do the same to help their party
workers, friends and relatives to become rich within a short period and now
wine shops are found everywhere in the state. As a result of this law and order situation of the state
is very bad. There is no need to describe the situation here, because News
papers and T V channels of the state inform everything in the morning and conscious people of the state remain worried for whole the
day.
The business of wine shop is now with rich and politically powerful persons. Is it possible on the part of the government of Assam to go against their interest? A section of people of the society will try to make the prohibition of alcohol irrelevant in the state reminding religious tradition of drinking alcohol in the state . But traditional liquor can be exempted from prohibition. Alcohol addicted persons of Bihar are advised by Lalu Prasad Jadav to drink ‘Tadi’ in lieu of wine or foreign liquor. In this way locally made Vodka may be the substitute of foreign liquor in Assam. It will help the rural poor to earn money to run the family, not to become rich. Only to protect the interest of the owners of wine shops ban is imposed on sale of locally made Vodka. Poor tribal men and women are punished and opportunist excise officers and police men regularly taking bribe from them. It happens not only in Assam, neighboring states like Arunachal Pradesh are also suffering from same problems.
The business of wine shop is now with rich and politically powerful persons. Is it possible on the part of the government of Assam to go against their interest? A section of people of the society will try to make the prohibition of alcohol irrelevant in the state reminding religious tradition of drinking alcohol in the state . But traditional liquor can be exempted from prohibition. Alcohol addicted persons of Bihar are advised by Lalu Prasad Jadav to drink ‘Tadi’ in lieu of wine or foreign liquor. In this way locally made Vodka may be the substitute of foreign liquor in Assam. It will help the rural poor to earn money to run the family, not to become rich. Only to protect the interest of the owners of wine shops ban is imposed on sale of locally made Vodka. Poor tribal men and women are punished and opportunist excise officers and police men regularly taking bribe from them. It happens not only in Assam, neighboring states like Arunachal Pradesh are also suffering from same problems.
Prominent writers of Assam, like
Homen Borgohain , have been suggesting the government of Assam to ban alcohol
in Assam since long ago. But their utterances go in vain.
The Prime Minister of India,
Narendra Modi gives importance to Yoga; but he is not taking any steps to ban
alcohol in the country. The Chief Minister of Bihar , Nitish Kumar rightly
says, “ Yoga is irrelevant without countrywide liquor ban.”
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