KOCHI: The top court upholding the liquor policy is a moment of glory for Kerala Government though many UDF leaders are upset with the verdict that widens the rift between the Government and influential bar owners, with less than six months to go for the Assembly elections.
The 740 bar owners, whose licences were not renewed, are seething with anger, having lost a fortune.
They had hoped against hope that the apex court would quash the liquor policy as being discriminatory. Now their only hope is that the State Government may offer some relief in the new Excise policy.
But Government sources have ruled out any dilution in the liquor policy, which has been hailed by the Supreme Court as an earnest effort towards curbing rampant liquor consumption.
To dilute it would be politically suicidal. The Government has run out of options. Elegance bar owner Benoy said allegations raised by Bar Owners Association working president Biju Ramesh against Ministers might reach their logical conclusion in the changed circumstances.
Association president Rajkumar Unni says the next course of action will be decided after seeking legal opinion. This is a hardening of stand since no bar owner, except Biju Ramesh, had deposed against the ministers.
Whether the allegations are true or not, the Opposition would latch on to every bit and haul the Government over the coals in the run-up to the elections.
Although Finance Minister K M Mani had to resign following the High Court’s observation that Caesar’s wife must be above suspicion, cases are still under investigation.
Another major short-term worry for the Government is that even after collecting 5 percent cess on liquor sales, the official rehabilitation plans for thousands of bar workers, who had lost their jobs, have reached nowhere.
The apex court verdict has come some 19 years after former Chief Minister A K Antony banned arrack in the State on April 1, 1996. Antony had proclaimed it as the first step towards total prohibition in the State.
The Chandy Government has set 2024 as the cutoff year, when the State would become liquor-less.
That is a long way off and there is no guarantee that successive ministries would tread the path of prohibition than look at a more scientific policy to promote temperance.
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