It may have taken the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) more than a year in office to finalise its liquor policy, but there is little that is surprising in the policy announced by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday.
The LDF had, in its election manifesto, given a clear signal about its liquor policy by stressing on abstention rather than prohibition, which meant that, given the option, it was for reopening the bars that the last United Democratic Front (UDF) government had closed down as part of its hardline liquor policy.
Given the many liquor-related controversies that had sullied the last year of UDF rule, the LDF could hardly hope to take the plunge immediately on coming to power. It waited for a year and has now come out with a liberalised policy that it had always argued for.
It is common knowledge that the UDF government was forced to adopt a hardline stand on liquor owing to troubled internal dynamics of the Congress, specifically the then KPCC president V.M. Sudheeran’s insistence on shutting down as many of the liquor outlets as possible and unarticulated but clearly discernible resistance to any such move from the then Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and others.
The game of oneupmanship at the time had resulted in Mr. Chandy himself taking an extreme hardline position and virtually bringing the curtain down on liquor sale through bars, save those in a little over a score Five Star bars.
Now that it has decided to dilute the liquor policy and allow reopening of roughly 200 or so Three Star and Four Star bars, the LDF would have to face the wrath of the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council (KCBC) and various anti-liquor campaign groups.
The Opposition UDF could also be expected to find common cause with them, but whether they would together succeed in stopping the LDF in its tracks on the liquor front would have to be seen. The Opposition parties could be expected to position itself at the helm of the anti-liquor forces, but whether that would really make any difference is a big question.
What the LDF leadership may have to worry about is the way the homemakers would look at the dilution in the liquor policy. Common logic would suggest that women would rise up against the policy dilution, but for that to happen, there would have to be a strong movement on the ground.
Arrack ban did not win A.K. Antony another term in 1995 and the closure of most of the bars did not secure for Oommen Chandy a win in the 2016 Assembly elections, clearly suggesting that the anti-liquor sentiment is yet to gain critical political mass in Kerala. And that cannot but be the reason why the LDF government has chosen to brave the odds and announce a liberalised liquor policy.
