Editorial: Bihar’s tragedy

Prohibition in Bihar has become a problem rather than a solution.

Hyderabad: The hooch tragedy in Bihar’s Saran district, claiming over 30 lives, comes as a grim reminder of the pitfalls of the prohibition policy. The failure in effective implementation of the dry law, imposed by the Nitish Kumar government in April 2016, has resulted in rampant smuggling of illicit liquor and the trafficking of drugs. The deaths due to the consumption of spurious liquor have been occurring with depressing regularity. Over 80 people have died in hooch tragedies in different parts of the State this year so far. Official data shows that before 2015 there were hardly any cases related to drugs, but after the imposition of the dry law, there has been a surge in these cases. What is more worrying is that most addicts are as young as 10 years and below 25 years of age. Statistics shows that addiction to ganja, charas/bhang has shot up post-prohibition. Smuggling of liquor from neighbouring States and from Nepal continues unabated. Prohibition incentivises smuggling and sale of spurious liquor. Large liquor consignments bound for Bihar have been seized in Haryana and Punjab in recent times. The lure of easy money allows a thriving partnership between the liquor mafia and law-enforcing agencies. As the parallel economy takes over, the crime rate increases. Bihar is seeing all of it. Women-led community-based plans to spread public awareness about the ill effects of liquor consumption could yield better results than a total liquor ban.

In this time and age, prohibition is an impractical and unimplementable idea. In the past, the dry law experiments had failed in many States. The combined Andhra Pradesh’s tryst with dry law in the mid-1990s was a spectacular failure. An anti-arrack agitation started by a group of women at Dubbaka village in the coastal district of Nellore in 1990 had snowballed into a State-wide social movement. It became a dominant issue in the run-up to the 1994 elections, prompting NTR to promise total prohibition. True to his words, the first file he signed as Chief Minister, after sweeping the Assembly polls, was on banning liquor. However, the State government had to grapple with rampant smuggling and the free flow of illicit liquor, besides massive losses to the exchequer. The dry law turned out to be a big failure. It only led to an increase in bootlegging. Driven against the wall by administrative problems, financial worries and increased smuggling, the Chandrababu Naidu government finally ended the prohibition in 1997. In Bihar, even the ruling party leaders have joined the chorus for a review of the liquor ban. Nitish Kumar is being accused of ignoring the adverse consequences of his policy, choosing to take a high moral ground instead. Prohibition in Bihar has become a problem rather than a solution. The linchpins of liquor cartels are having a free run.