Prohibition – Gujarat style; and all are tipsy!
BY
RK MISRA
One
swallow is a singleton but two do not a summer make. Likewise, sip, swallow or
gulp, one is not enough. But two in a tub can’t turn soggy wet into bone dry!
The
toast of the country is Kerala. And Gujarat is celebrating. It has company.
Many have come and gone but Gujarat has walked straight and steady all along,
over six decades. You know why? Because we in Gujarat don’t drink and drive other people nuts. We do it in the cool
comfort of out homes. And quietly go off to sleep. Thats the secret of our
endurance and off course, success!
The
intracacies of the booze business in Gujarat would require a bookful of
balladry. A column corner wedged in an Indiawise space competition would hardly
suffice. Nevertheless a few vignettes to enhance the taste if not fulfill your
appetite should be in order. Born dry, liquor consumption in Gujarat is a
non-bailable offence. And yet the state leaks liquor like a sieve. It is
available aplenty-the brand you require, wherever you require and in the
quantity you require provided you pay through your nose. It includes brewery
ranges, from the mighty scotch to the base level whisky and the rural country
(desi) to the urban ‘hooch’. Amongst urbanites, consumers are divided into regulars
clients and floaters. The regulars have their set bootleggers doing home
delivery with mobiles and watsap as handy tools. The floaters have to go to the
‘addas’.
Country
liquor is a rural cottage industry. It is brewed in a village for the
consumption of the local population or those of nearby villages, largely people
known to each other so the raw material is either grains, fruits or even
vegetables, pure and secure. The tribal brews like mahuva also fall in this
category. Again, available a plenty. Then comes the poor urbanites’ bane, the
deadly ‘hooch’. This is the one largely known to turn killer and endanger not
only lives but governments as well. The erstwhile chief minister of Gujarat,
Narendra Modi who is now the prime minister learnt this to his dismay, days
after a vanglorious boast that moonshine deaths had died with the Congress
governments in Gujarat. Soon after, in mid-2009, Modi and his government which
was in a mood to partially relax liquor prohibition in Mahatma Gandhi’s
Gujarat, beat a hasty retreat when 150 people died after consuming illicit
liquor in Ahmedabad while the Vidhan Sabha was in session. As city hospitals
were flooded with the dead and dying, Modi known to go on the offensive when
cornered, moved swiftly to appoint a Judicial Commission of Enquiry and pass
amendments in the relevant Act that would invite upto death sentence for hooch
deaths. This eased the pressure. The bootleggers were soon back to business as
usual, the report of the panel stands rendered redundant for delayed delivery,
not a single bootlegger has ever been sent to the gallows and Mr. Modi is now
the Prime Minister. All is well that ends well and life continues to rotate on
it’s unlubricated axis!.
The
eternal among the optimists still hope for a Prohibition-free Gujarat. After
the era of Gandhian chief ministers ended with late Babubhai Patel, there
seemed light at the end of the tunnel when the then chief minister Madhavsinh
Solakki set up the justice MN Miyabhoy Commission to review Prohibition in the
state in 1981. It submitted it’s report in 1983. It flattered only to deceive
the hopefuls. His report ripped apart
the nexus between the cops and the bootleggers leading to the creation of the
filthy rich, institutionalized ‘baron bootlegger’ and recommended a virtual
clampdown.
Liquor
prohibition in Gujarat is, by conservative estimates, a Rs. 30,000 crore annual
turnover illegal industry with linkages to go from roots to shoots and right
upto the very top. No bootlegger can practice his craft without permission from
the area police station and the actual sale to hafta ratio is closely monitored
by the cops. He must also apportion for the occasional raids by higher ups and
there are unofficial ‘vahivatdars’ (administrators) who ensure that everyone up
and down the chain from a particular police area gets his due.
What
was the margin of profit in bootlegging?. According to the submission before
the Commission by some top police officers then, it was nine times the actual
investment and according to some even twelve times.” Atleast no other trade in
this part of the state yield such high percentage of profits”, it noted.
Pointing
to the nexus with the politician, Justice Miyabhoy stated “the illgotten wealth
of these persons had given them the status of not only respectable citizens but
also as leaders in the economic, social and political life of Gujarat. I have
enough evidence before me that police officers collude with bootleggers”, he
stated. This was in 1983. Today, 2014, over a quarter century later, things are
the same, may be even worse. The bootlegger is more tech-savvy and the police
and the politician much more brazen! And yes, the law abiding citizen who keeps
a liquor permit must still pay many times more, taxes, high costs and all while
the freelancer makes merry at half the price even less.
And
yet, if you ask an average family man-even one who himself drinks on the
sly-his views on prohibitions, the answer nine out of ten times will be a
forthright one. Yes, he or she, wants Prohibition in Gujarat. Why? Because the
police and politicians are happy with their ‘paisa’, the sod with his swig and
the bootlegger with his booty. And the womenfolk are content that the drunk go
home and sleep for fear of the cops instead of creating a nuisance on the roads
as happens elsewhere in the country. So it’s a win-win situation for all. But
remember-At the end of the day, the innkeeper loves the drunkard but not for a
son-in-law!
http://www.orissapost.com/epaper/010914/p9.htm
sirji well reasearched and thought about and written in a very good style
ReplyDeleteThis article is definitely a Pint for thought
ReplyDeleteHic hic hurray!
ReplyDelete