States must not promulgate laws that don't exist nationwide; they are unimplementable
Yet again, four Indian citizens living in Bihar who wanted a drink have paid for their desire with their lives — yes, hooch deaths, this time in the district of Rohtas on Saturday. And their deaths are on Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's conscience. Harsh wordsIJ Perhaps. But when Nitish can link his support for a single taxation regime for India with asking for proper preparation and consultation before implementation, or says he will support the promulgation of a uniform civil code only once the minorities are first extensively consulted and fully onboard, why can't he extend that principle to prohibitionIJ How many deaths will it take for the Chief Ministers of Bihar (and Gujarat) to adopt a position that says we are in favour of prohibition nationwide, and when that comes to pass, our States will be the first and most effective implementers of that policyIJ Please feel free to lawfully agitate for your demand, rope in the Kerala Chief Minister too as he is halfway there anyway, and make our famously tea-total current and former Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Manmohan Singh (respectively) the brand ambassadors of your movement for a dry India, if you will. But for heaven's sake, stop this nonsense.
That is the only sane, responsible and working solution to the issue of prohibition rather than getting lost in repetitive debates on the merits/demerits of banning the sale and consumption of liquor which have traditionally grappled with a priori assumptions, social responsibility of elected governments, revenue generation, individual choice, public health, corruption, cultural context, societal mores and the jobs economy. Our suggestion takes on particular urgency because reports indicate that the smuggling of both Indian Made Foreign liquor (IMFl) and desi into Bihar from neighbouring States, where there is no prohibition, is rampant. This, despite the most draconian features of the prohibition law in Bihar being implemented with the full might of the state apparatus: There have been close to 5,00,000 raids, nearly 77,000 FIRs have been lodged and over 90,000 arrests made. But you can still order 'home delivery' of your favourite IMFl, spurious and genuine, with ease or find an illegal theka for desi whether it's the killer version of hooch or the original, without too much effort. Driving demand underground and thereby making supply dodgy by implementing prohibition in Bihar when residents of all others around are drinking away merrily is a shortcut devised by Nitish and his ilk to fulfil their poll promise. It would behoove an otherwise upright and honest leader of integrity like him to take the longer, more arduous path to launch a movement for prohibition across India if he really believes in the cause, and be enough of a democrat to wait till the country agrees with him before implementing it in Bihar.