Bihar liquor ban: A costly and unworkable ban

Bihar liquor ban: A costly and unworkable ban

FPJ BureauUpdated: Friday, May 31, 2019, 08:29 PM IST
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Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, one hopes, knows what he is getting into by seeking to ban liquor in the State from 1 April 2016. Prohibition has not succeeded anywhere. No, not even in Gujarat, though it feels obliged to keep up the pretence despite an open breach by the omniscient bootleg industry.

The first Janata Party Government under Morarji Desai too experimented with prohibition only to come to terms with the reality that its enforcement is well-nigh impossible and riddled with great possibilities for various underground crime syndicates. Why, the Haryana strongman, the late Bansi Lal, had imposed prohibition only to come to grief very soon when a parallel bootleg industry did no time to grow and flourish despite his rough and ready methods to impose his will.

The point is that the jungle raj that the critics had feared would return with Lalu Prasad Yadav as his senior partner would now certainly become a reality thanks to Kumar’s unilateral edict on prohibition. Periodic hooch tragedies would even turn the women in whose name the decision to ban liquor is justified against the state government.

Besides, it will be hard to make up for the loss of some Rs. 4,000 crore in annual revenue due to the ban on the sale of liquor. The BJP and other parties in the state may have their compulsions in supporting the ban but Kumar will face a huge challenge in enforcing it, especially given that the neighbouring states were all ‘wet’ and they would become a rich source of smuggling of underground liquor into Bihar. Populism might have dictated prohibition but ample administrative experience and common sense fully militate against it.

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