I have, for a long time, been very vocal about the liquor ban in Bihar. On various social platforms, I have voiced my support in favour of the ban which, in a very short span of time, promised to save the lives of thousands of rural women. But the ban, in my view, had to be supplemented with widespread awareness programmes to make the public understand the usage and the side effects of alcohol. As someone who questioned the urban middle class's obsession with the "sacrifices" made by "soldiers at Siachen", I always wished to explain how each citizen can and must sacrifice for the country.
A soldier's sacrifice, although supreme because of the danger to life, cannot ever be equated to a farmer's since a farmer indulges in farming without any guarantee of salary, provident fund, pension scheme, subsidised schooling for children and many other such privileges. A farmer cultivates the land either because that is all he knows how to do, or because he chooses to do it. In either scenario, a farmer is, for me, the most sacrificing and under-appreciated cog in the social framework of our country.
Unfortunately, during my many visits to rural Bihar, I have found farmer's households being compromised due to an evil intruder: alcohol! In fact, most of the economically weaker sections of the society suffer a great deal due to the unregulated consumption of alcohol by the male head of the family.
Thus, while a huge section of urban educated "conscious" public found the ban to be an utter mockery of human rights, I supported it. I saw in it a possibility for each one of us to sacrifice the pleasure of drinking for the good of the thousands who get adversely affected by it. After all, each of us must contribute to the well being of others. This is the basic principal of social structuring, right? Traffic signals, restaurants, electricity bills, courts of law and the Constitution itself are all means of ensuring public safety, social bonhomie and categorising. We are not allowed to say: "I don't like stopping at red lights when I am driving! It inhibits my movement and is a deterrent to my idea of freedom!" Similarly, for the survival and well-being of poor women and their children, the liquor ban (accompanied by proper training and awareness programmes) seemed like a good idea to me.
One might argue that even the rich are adversely affected by alcohol addiction and my thoughts for the poor are misplaced. But, in all fairness, no wealthy household risks annihilation due to over-consumption of alcohol. Any which way, Nitish Kumar implemented the ban in a very strange manner by making unwarranted arrests and not ensuring proper redress.
The Bihar government has created a record of sorts by arresting more than 1.15 lakh people for violating the liquor ban. The arrests could have been averted had Nitish implemented a better method of dealing with the defaulters. But he was so sure of corrupt practices within his administration that he did not implement any fines and ordered straight arrests. Unfortunately, only a handful of people have so far been convicted while other cases are pending in the courts. With prisons already over populated, liquor arrests have augmented problems for jail authorities in the state.
Further, the CM has not taken even a single step to create more awareness about the ill-effects of over-consumption of alcohol. Such an arbitrary imposition of a near-Nazi ban has resulted in further alienation of alcohol addicts because nobody wishes to be associated with them for the fear of getting arrested. It has also led to bootlegging of the most rampant kind.
After the RJD's Tejashwi Yadav announced that his party would make the liquor ban more people-friendly and correction-oriented, Nitish's antaraatma too decided to change the norms of the ban. He has recently met with his cabinet and is gearing up to relax the provisions of the ban without announcing any awareness drive. This is another half-baked thought from the compulsive attention-seeker antaraatma and will bring him flak from all quarters.
