The recent amendments to the prohibition law in Bihar are draconian, to say the least, and hardly redound to the credit of state chief minister Nitish Kumar, who is reputed to be a good administrator and a politician with a sense of balance. Under the changes being contemplated, the whole family becomes culpable if even one member is found to have a drink at home, or if a bottle of liquor is found at someone’s residence. This is absurd. Whatever the intent of the government, it aims to punish those who have not violated the law of consuming alcohol — a kind of community punishment that belongs to the era of feudalism and colonial rule when individual freedoms were disregarded.
It was an earlier Nitish Kumar government that had permitted liquor vends in every nook and corner of the state. The same CM is now try to roll back the old arrangement. However, booze-making units are not required to close shop. Only the consumption of what’s called Indian-Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) alcohol is disallowed. But Bihar-made toddy, which is fermented date or palm sap, may be had without restraint.
None of this makes logical sense. Rural women, and generally poor women, had welcomed prohibition initially because their menfolk were throwing money on alcohol, whose rising consumption was becoming a social evil. But if the whole family is to be locked up if a single member breaks the law, the women who now admire Mr Kumar are quite likely to revolt.
