Within a short period of just about a year, the K. Chandrashekar Rao government of Telangana has been a disappointment on the prohibition issue: it has decided to make available liquor at cheaper rates. Already the poor are groaning under the widespread social crisis due to their enslavement to liquor. Many men addicted to the drink do not work regularly; they use up their meagre earnings on liquor, and let loose violence on the women in their families. Not to forget the disastrous toll on their health and the psychological, economic and emotional health of their families.
P.L . Vishweshwer Rao The Telangana government planned to follow the Maharashtra model of supplying low-priced liquor in sachets and even sent a team to Maharashtra to study it. When this move of the government generated criticism across the spectrum of society in Telangana, the government fell back on the excuse that actually the new policy of the government was meant for the good of the people as it would wean them away from illicit liquor or gudumba, as it is known in these parts. When this was greeted with scepticism, the government said what it meant by ‘cheap liquor’ was that it would reduce the prices on the legally available liquor (Indian-made foreign liquor) by reducing taxes so that the health of the addicts would not take a further hit. In fact, the government says with much indignation, that the state exchequer would be put to a loss of Rs. 16 crore a month. Some of the losses would be partly offset with increased sales due to the lower prices.
Addiction to liquor hits the women hardest which is why it was the women of Dubakunta in Nellore district of the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh who launched a unique movement against consumption of liquor in 1991 that was used by Telugu Desam Party to return to political power by promising total prohibition. The then Chief Minister N.T. Rama Rao introduced prohibition but subsequently his son-in-law N. Chandrababu Naidu lifted it saying it was difficult to implement.
This time round too, it is the women who have responded with anger at the Telangana government’s decision to facilitate spread of ‘cheap’ liquor. Already several women’s organisations have launched agitations across the State. During my interactions with women of lower stata in both rural and urban areas, they unequivocally identify their menfolk’s slavery to liquor as the root cause of all their problems. In the villages, they point out that the distribution of liquor is far more efficient making it far more easily and widely available than milk. Herein lies the tragedy of the government decision whose priority is not supplying milk or education or health care at cheaper rates, of better quality and widely accessible to the poor who need these desperately. Rather, it has prioritised sale of liquor and has ironically given it a spin – that it is doing this to prevent deaths due to consumption of spurious, chemical-laden liquor. What about the deaths of hundreds of infants, children, diseased old people and new mothers who languish and die a slow death due to lack of availability of nutritious food and medicare; thousands of young girls dying during or after child birth due to lack of medical help; thousands of people living in fluoride-affected areas in Nalgonda district who are born deformed, not to speak of mentally retarded children? Despite 68 years of self-governance, these citizens of Telangana continue to drink liquor daily but safe water is not available for them. By any count, deaths and suffering from these causes far outnumber the deaths due to illicit liquor.
Why are these issues not an issue with the government of Telangana? Why doesn’t the government revive the government schools and hospitals that are being allowed a die a slow death, depriving the poor of their only chance to minimal education and even less medicare? The government would rather allow these institutions that are in the last throes of their existence to die a painful death. It will not throw them a lifeline but in the name of doing ‘good’ to the poor, safeguarding their health and future, the government will give them access to low-priced liquor. Yet we know only too well that addiction takes a huge toll on the poor, leading to their ruin. But since the massive revenues generated from liquor business keeps the government in robust financial health, a little deception does no harm. That seems to be the thinking of the government.
Therefore, even as it ensures that low-priced liquor is available to the poor in a well-organised, efficient network of legal and illegal outlets, it is planning to launch a massive propaganda drive of dance and music programmes against consumption of liquor and propping up the propaganda with promised health centres that will screen addicts for liver disease and cancers of various kinds. Does this government even know its basic duties towards its people? What is this policy of inflicting wounds on the people and then organising treatment for the wounds? Is the government confused or wants to confuse the people? Won’t the government learn anything from history? If it doesn’t then it will inevitably reap the consequences of its foolhardiness.
(Prof. P .L. Vishweshwer Rao is former Dean, Osmania University and chairman of the Steering Committee of the All-party Struggle Committee against cheap liquor.)
