Indian beer and wine have become popular abroad; in this situation, whom can Nitish Kumar declare as a sinner?
Nitish Kumar recently justified his policies in the Bihar Legislative Assembly as Chief Minister and said in a very sharp manner that “those who drink alcohol are not Indians and are great sinners. They are not following the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi”. By the way, he made this remark while replying to the debate in the House on the proposed amendments to the Bihar Prohibition and Excise Act, 2016. The continuous debate on the benefits of his liquor control policy and loss of revenue or illegal sales has been going on not only in Bihar, but across the country. Apart from Bihar, complete prohibition laws are applicable only in the state of Gujarat. Yes, recently, BJP leader and former Chief Minister Sadhvi Uma Bharti has started a movement on the prohibition law by throwing stones at a licensed liquor shop. In both the states, it is being seen as a formula for power politics. Nitish Kumar has been making big claims and changing according to the stakes of politics. A few years ago, he was being called a contender for the post of Prime Minister. Nowadays, leaving the side of the BJP, the main leader of the new oppoisition front, the candidate for the post of Vice President is being discussed. So can he also set the goal that if he gets a bigger role at the national level, he will be able to implement prohibition on the lines of Bihar in the country?
He is a veteran leader and, ahead of the Jaiprakash movement, he will remember at least a little bit of the anti-narcotics resolutions of the Janata Party rule of 1977-79 and their failures by Morarji Desai and Chaudhary Charan Singh. I remember because I was a correspondent in the country’s leading Hindi magazine weekly Hindustan (Hindustan Times Group) at that time. Had to meet Morarji Bhai and Charan Singh, listen to their talks and write two to four-page reports-features etc. on the issues of prohibition policy in the magazine. In this sequence, an article published in December 1977 was titled “Darubandi: The weather will remain dry”. In those days, Prime Minister Morarji Desai publicly expressed the resolve that “the prohibition law will be implemented in the whole country in the next four years”. After this, a senior leader of the Janata Party told me in a meeting with a little sarcasm that when only 12 members of his cabinet are liquor lovers, how will they be able to stop the sari public? Morarji Bhai had earlier implemented prohibition as the Chief Minister of Mumbai state. Later after partition, in 1977, Prohibition Act was implemented in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. When Morarji Bhai went to the celebration of the 400th anniversary of the construction of Amritsar, he put a condition on the demand of making Amritsar a dry port that the state government should declare the city dry. The then Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal made it clear that at present there will be a ban on the sale of liquor in Amritsar for two days. But later, Morarji’s resolve was never fulfilled and not only Amritsar, but Punjab-Haryana became the leader in the production and sale of liquor. Years later, when Bansilal became the Chief Minister of Haryana, the Prohibition Act was implemented, but after his removal, this law was abolished as impractical.
Nitish Kumar repeatedly mentions the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi. Certainly prohibition of alcohol was an important ideal policy for them. But how much was he or the Congress party able to implement that policy? Before independence, the prohibition policy was at number one among the 11 proposals of the Gandhi Irwin Pact. This policy was kept prominently in the Congress sessions also. In 1937, the Congress governments of seven provinces also expressed only the resolution to implement prohibition. After independence, the Constituent Assembly, making a provision for prohibition of alcohol in Section 47 of Part 8 of the Constitution, wrote: “The State should consider it its prime duty to improve the nutritious food and standard of living of its people and to improve the health of life and especially it should make efforts.” That the use of alcoholic beverages and drugs being injurious to health is prohibited. The drug should be used only when it is necessary for a particular treatment. In the Gandhi Centenary Year and 1975, the Congress government of Indira Gandhi announced the plan of prohibition policy, but it could not be implemented. A major reason for this is dependent on the policies of the state governments due to the prohibition of alcohol being related to health. At the same time, the major source of income of the state governments is the tax from the sale of liquor. This method is also given by the British. First, the British promoted alcohol in India. Then in 1790, the East India Company started collecting tax on liquor by implementing the excise system. This policy continued after independence. In the era of liberalization, after 1991, the production of liquor, consumption and income from foreign liquor companies and domestic companies has been increasing. Leaders of various parties, including Congress, BJP or their supporters, started liquor factories and profits kept on increasing. Now, Indian beer and wine have also become popular abroad. In this situation, whom can Nitish Kumar declare as a sinner?
The author is editorial director of ITV Network-India News and Aaj Samaj.