Rahul Gandhi tweaking prohibition issue widens debate in Tamil Nadu

Given a multiplicity of factors that impinge on the prohibition debate, when key regional parties like the DMK and PMK have already pledged a return to the dry law in toto if elected to power, Rahul Gandhi did not choose to adopt simple yes/no logic to the entire gamut of liquor-centric issues.

Rather he, all through his speech, consciously chose to avoid the term prohibition, partial or total. Empathising with sociological issues arising from the present liquor policy, like “destroying families” amid a larger “number one problem of unemployment Tamil Nadu is facing”, the shift in semantics of the debate by Rahul is very significant, say political observers.

With Congress having been the ‘original party’ of prohibition in erstwhile Madras state, the faction-ridden Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) now got an unexpectedly refreshing foothold to take forward the debate in an open-ended fashion, when Rahul Gandhi told the gathering, “we will come up with a new liquor policy after listening to what you have to say.”

Rahul Gandhi’s emphasis was on the pain and suffering that “women specially have to undergo”, and “successive governments in Tamil Nadu – read DMK and AIADMK regimes — not listening to people’s frustrations and fears, unlike the late Kamaraj who listened to all sections of people and all communities in matters of governance.

It implies consulting all stake-holders, including those voices who want traditional toddy-tapping to be allowed with some regulations and those concerned about hooch tragedies staging a comeback with free flow of spurious country liquor, besides addressing issues of excise revenue loss and the revulsion among large sections of the people to the omnipresent ‘Tasmac’ shops retailing Indian made foreign liquor (IMFL).

In Tamil Nadu’s political setting, Rahul Gandhi also linked up the issue to the “liquor lobby” influencing successive governments in the recent past and influential politicians having interests in distilleries.

Rahul’s father, Rajiv Gandhi, had launched a similar tirade against the ‘liquor lobby’ at the end his now-famous “13 trips to Tamil Nadu” during 1988-89, when Congress evolved a strategy to fight the Assembly elections alone under the late G.K. Moopanar’s leadership. But in a four-cornered contest, the DMK led by M. Karunanidhi came back to power then after a ‘13-year-vanvaas’ that again led to change in prohibition policy.

Nonetheless, observers recall that the Congress gave up that independent poll strategy - despite the party doing reasonably well, finishing third in that election overall and Mr Moopanar himself getting elected to the Assembly — when it came to fighting the Lok Sabha elections later that year.

While it is still early to talk of alliance formations for the 2016 Assembly polls in the state, Rahul Gandhi’s nuanced emphasis on a ‘new liquor policy’, not only avoids the extremes of a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to total prohibition, but has also realistically opened up the possibilities of a larger political front in which like-minded parties could join hands with the Congress to fight the next election.

Rahul Gandhi seeking to redefine the prohibition debate in this way is also significant with BJP too trying to lay claim to the ‘Kamaraj legacy’ in the state, add political observers.