Prashant Kishor demands liquor law rollback in Bihar, triggers debate

PATNA: The Saran hooch tragedy claiming more than 35 lives since Tuesday night has generated much political heat over the utility and futility of the liquor prohibition law in the state. There is no denying the fact that despite a complete liquor ban enforced in the state since April, 2016, by the Nitish Kumar government, it is clandestinely available everywhere and spurious liquor has caused several deaths in different parts of Bihar since then.
Though the state government under CM Nitish has been a butt of criticism from whoever is in the opposition—RJD or now BJP—for the alleged policy failure per se in its implementation, no political party ever dare say it should be rolled back or if modified, how.
The debate over the state-enforced liquor ban took a step forward on Wednesday when poll strategist Prashant Kishor (PK) demanded its rollback within 48 hours. He, like many others, blamed CM Nitish Kumar for wasting the state's time and energy on this “futile” exercise and even accused people in the corridors of power of consuming liquor.
Addressing the media during his ‘Jan Suraj’ padyatra in Dhaka block of East Champaran on Wednesday, PK did not spare even BJP, saying they did not raise their voice over the loopholes and failures of prohibition policy.
“Nowhere has a state-enforced liquor ban succeeded. When RJD was in the opposition, they howled down the government’s failure and now it is BJP,” he said and questioned Nitish’s statement in February this year that over 1.6 crore people had shunned liquor in the state since its ban. “Which agency conducted this survey,” he asked.
PK also said Mahatma Gandhi never talked about state-enforced liquor prohibition as it’s a social issue and the government should focus on developing infrastructure, health facilities and education, instead of engaging state mac
hinery to check who is carrying a liquor bottle in a bag.
But RJD put PK in the dock on this issue. “We always demanded books in place of liquor bottles in people’s hands. When the prohibition was enforced, PK was in the advisor's role to the Nitish government. He has no moral right to comment on the liquor policy. In fact, he should add prohibition as part of his padyatra to make people aware about the ill-effects of consuming liquor,” RJD spokesperson Chitranjan Gagan told TOI.
Former principal of Patna College and social-political commentator Prof N K Choudhary also questioned PK’s morality in demanding rollback of liquor ban.
“I always stand up for prohibition. Failure to implement it effectively should not be the reason for abolishing the ban. The entire state machinery has failed to check crime. So, should we abolish all criminal laws? Giving up is no option. It should be discussed rationally. Some modifications are required in the liquor law,” Choudhary said while stressing upon the need for rationalization of law.
“Everyone knows that many bureaucrats and politicians drink liquor. So, the elite should be allowed to drink with heavy taxes. I am not for moral policing,” he said.
BJP spokesperson Nikhil Anand, however, said interstate liquor smuggling is taking place in Bihar in a big way. "We are seriously worried because the inflow of drugs has spread to every nook and corner in Bihar. The collapse of law and order is a repercussion of these drug and illegal liquor menaces but the CM has closed his eyes on all these issues," he said.