Criticism has arisen over the demand for bar owners to pay `2.5 lakh each to circumvent a Government-mandated monthly closure

The demand that all bar owners in the State should pay Rs 2.5 lakh per establishment instead of cancelling a Government order that makes it mandatory for all watering holes to down shutters on the first of every month and restrictions on opening more bar hotels underscore the opinion that it is time for the Kerala Government to come out of liquor business.

The latest controversy about the demand made by the powers that be to the bar owners to pay exorbitant money as a bribe for altering the excise department’s laws establishes that the CPI(M)-led LDF and Congress-led UDF are swindling the State alternately, a charge made time and again by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his campaign speeches in the State.

The Government has no business to be in business and is more so in the case of the liquor business. Unlike other States, Kerala and Tamil Nadu follow liquor policies that promote high-level corruption. The Governments in these two States are the monopolies in the liquor trade. The Beverages Corporation of Kerala (BEVCO) and Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (TASMAC), the State-owned entities are the only bodies that can buy and sell liquor. Bar restaurants owned by the private sector should procure the liquor supplied by these two bodies. Long back there were private liquor outlets in these States doing roaring business.

After the “nationnalisation” of the liquor business in Kerala, the tipplers face severe hardship in getting their daily quota of spirits and they are also forced to consume what the brands that BEVCO ‘impose’ on them.

Earlier, the tipplers had the choice of getting their favourite brands and drinking too. After the taking over of the liquor business by the Government, the brands to be sold in the States are decided by the party in power and there is no transparency in the selection of liquor to be traded through the outlets or restaurants(bars). The liquor manufacturers who pay the ruling parties get the contract and laugh at the banks.

The Government claims that the nationalization is the prelude to the introduction of total prohibition in Kerala. This is a dream that will never materialise unless other States bring in legislation banning liquor. Neighboring Karnataka is a tippler’s paradise as the private outlets sell all popular brands patronized by the consumers.

While arrack, the country spirit is banned in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, the same is available in the rest of the country much to the delight of the working class. Those who toil in farmlands from morning to evening need a bit of relaxation after a hard day’s work and hence it is not proper on the part of the Government to ban the stuff.

Pinarayi Vijayan, chief minister of Kerala, is on record stating that toddy is a most nutritious drink and not alcohol. Tamil Nadu has banned toddy tapping forcing the poor workers to rush to TASMAC with their hard-earned wages to buy the spirit for the evening. If arrack is not banned in these States (where spurious arrack is available from bootleggers) the workers need not have spent the day’s earnings in State-owned liquor outlets.

The notion that liquor would imperil health has to go. Many findings have been confirmed through scientific research that a moderate quantity of liquor is good for health. There is a Chinese adage about liquor: “A man takes a drink. The drink takes more drinks . Finally, the drinks take the man”. If the authorities could make the man consume fewer drinks, that would be the best solution to alcoholism. But it should not be by killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. We live in an era when Indian-made scotches have beaten the spirits brewed in Scotland and the USA to emerge as their rivals in the global market.

Colombo and suburbs, hardly an hour of air journey from Kochi is a study in contrast. Though there are many liquor outlets in Sri Lanka, one cannot come across long queues of tipplers in front of these shops. Devan Ramachandran, a judge of the Kerala High Court, said recently that the drinkers need much better treatment from the BEVCO outlets. He was drawing the attention of the Government to the plight of tipplers who have to wait for hours in the queue braving the scorching sun and heavy downpours to get their daily evening quota.

Sunil Kumar, a fellow journalist, said that the Government’s stringent and outdated regulations alone are responsible for making people consume more and more liquor.

He says that the decision to down the shutters of liquor outlets on the first day of every month is a regressive measure as it forces the drinkers to buy an additional bottle in the previous evening to stock for the next day. But what happens is that they consume that extra bottle on the same evening leaving them “high and dry” on the day of shutdown. Let the tipplers have the freedom to gulp down their quota.

It is impossible to have total prohibition in the country. Piloo Modi, the veteran parliamentarian said during a debate on prohibition that he could stay away from alcohol for any number of years. But I cannot live even for a minute without the right to consume liquor,” Piloo Modi had said. Let better sense prevail.

(The writer is a special correspondent with the Pioneer, views are personal)