A hooch tragedy that claimed over 40 lives in Gujarat’s Botad district brings to the fore, yet again, the contentious question of prohibition. Gujarat is one of the four States in India that prohibits alcohol. The victims consumed poisonous methyl alcohol sold in plastic pouches by bootleggers. Twenty-four people have been named as accused in the FIRs and 14 have been arrested. Police action that follows every such tragedy barely inspires public confidence; indeed, it conceals the complicity of the administration in protecting the black market for alcohol, wherever prohibition exists. It is difficult to assume that vast networks of illegal manufacturing and sale of liquor could exist without the patronage of the police and politicians. Reports suggest that in this case, specific complaints were made to the police, who continued to look the other way. Prohibition makes liquor illegal, but it hides in the black market. By driving sales and production underground, the State loses tax revenues while consumers are exposed to huge health risks. Though prohibition is listed among the Directive Principles of state policy in the Constitution, no State has been able to achieve it with any enduring effectiveness. Globally, it is a similar experience.
Prohibition has, however, remained a potent slogan for some politicians. Alcohol damages health, family finances, and human relationships, and the call to ban it altogether has a certain moral, even if not practical, appeal. But using the sledgehammer of the law to stop alcohol use can be counterproductive, as experience shows. The Gujarat High Court is considering five petitions that challenge the constitutional validity of the Gujarat Prohibition Act, 1949 on grounds that it violates fundamental rights including privacy. The law is being questioned for its alleged arbitrariness as it allows tourists from outside the State to consume alcohol in the State. The prohibition laws give sweeping and intrusive powers to the police, who, at least in one case in the recent past in Gujarat, used them against political protesters. On the one hand, prohibition offers the opportunity for rent collection and on the other it lets the police free to selectively apply the law. There is a moral burden that several political parties in India try to carry on their shoulders to discourage or bar alcohol consumption — several parties bar members from consuming alcohol — but in practice this turns out to be comical hypocrisy. With Gujarat already in campaign mode for the Assembly election that is only months away, the tragedy has prompted the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party to train their guns on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. Rather than clinging on to dogmas and impossible goals of social reform through coercive law, there must be a more honest discussion on prohibition.
