The already strained bonds between the Congress and most of its allies in Kerala’s ruling UDF have now been weakened further over Chief Minister Oommen Chandy’s allegedly unilateral decision to ban liquor totally in the State.
Most of the Congress’ allies — including the Kerala Congress (M), third biggest constituent of the UDF, RSP and Kerala Congress(J) — have come out against the decision for total liquor ban. Chandy is even now claiming that the booze ban decision was taken unanimously by the UDF but Congress’ allies now say that they were not given opportunity to air their differences.
These UDF constituents say that the Government’s new liquor policy envisaging total liquor ban over ten years, is hastily taken and impractical. They also point out that the ban will cause financial crisis for the State and will affect the growth of various sectors like tourism and IT. However, the Chief Minister on Monday ruled out a review of the liquor policy.
As per the new policy, all the 730 bars in the State — except those at five-star hotels — will be closed down by September 12 and ten per cent of the 384 retail liquor outlets will close every year leading to total eradication of liquor in the next ten years, bringing an annual loss of Rs 7,500 crore to the Exchequer, which is over 20 percent of the State’s total revenue.
Though many of the UDF leaders had expressed differences of opinion about the decision to ban liquor since August 21, the day a front meeting made the proposal, and the subsequent ratification of it by the Government, the first sharp objections came from the Cabinet itself when labour Minister Shibu Baby John advised Chandy to “have the courage to correct the mistake”.
Questioning the practicality of imposing total ban on liquor, Shibu said that proper discussions and preparations were needed before arriving at such a decision. “The State is going to suffer a huge revenue loss. The Government should have examined the other sources through which this loss could have been compensated before taking the decision,” he said.
The closure of the 730 bars in the State would lead to job-loss for tens of thousands of employees and it was impossible for the Government to ensure their rehabilitation, Shibu pointed out. He also questioned the rationale behind making Sundays liquor-free days. “It would have been far better if a working day was declared as dry day,” he said.
Finance Minister KM Mani, also chairman of the Kerala Congress (M), has now come out with objections to the liquor ban by saying that he is the biggest victim of the Government decision as managing the State’s already precarious finance situation would become extremely difficult for him once the revenue from the bars and liquor shops stops.
“I can’t be held responsible for this loss. Problems are bound to be there when there is a fall by over Rs 7,000 crore in the State’s revenues. When that happens, people will normally have a tendency to find fault with the finance management by the Minister. I had warned the Cabinet about this when it ratified the decision for liquor ban,” Mani said.
Even the State Excise Minister, K Babu of the Congress, is not confident about the practicality of total liquor ban. A senior leader of UDF partner Kerala Congress (J) complained that Chandy had imposed the liquor ban decision on the front.