What should be the gist of the liquor policy of Kerala's Congress-led UDF Government - total booze ban or promotion of renunciation of liquorIJ Should the Gandhian party and the coalition it leads accept money and votes from liquor tradersIJ Is it proper for the party and front to field boozers as candidates in electionsIJ
These questions have triggered a war in Kerala's Congress and the UDF with State Congress president VM Sudheeran taking an extreme and puritanical position and almost all other senior leaders in the party and most of its allies in the ruling coalition vehemently opposing his view and asking him not to try to impose his personal opinions on others.
Rejecting a statement made by UDF convener and senior Congress leader PP Thankachan that the thrust of UDF's liquor policy was promotion of renunciation of liquor rather than Prohibition, Sudheeran told newsmen in Kochi on Monday, "UDF stands for liquor ban. The policy of the UDF is to implement total liquor ban in ten years."
Despite the widespread allegation that certain Ministers in the UDF Cabinet themselves were bar owners, the PCC chief said that neither the party nor the UDF should take money or vote from liquor traders, drawing instant flak from his own senior party colleagues including Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and the allies, Kerala Congress (M) and Kerala Congress (J).
"The party does not want donations to be collected from liquor traders. An official declaration on this will come out soon after a meeting of the appropriate body. Also, liquor consumers will not be made office-bearers of the party. There is also the decision not to field boozers as candidates. This will be implemented from the next election," Sudheeran said.
Rejecting Sudheeran's position, CM Chandy said that everybody's vote was valuable as far as the Congress party was concerned. The UDF's aim was to eradicate the menace of liquor from the society by taking ahead promotion of renunciation of liquor and liquor ban simultaneously, he said.