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New liquor policy brews heady trouble for Nayanar

D Jose in Thiruvananthapuram

Another liquor controversy is brewing in the south Indian state of Kerala.

On one side you have the die-hard prohibitionists. "Hundred per cent liquor ban," they chant, "That's what Kerala needs."

And on the other, it the E K Nayanar government. "The Abkari (liquor) policy," holds the ruling Left Democratic Front, "need not be so strict. It should be liberalised now and again..."

The present brew of trouble is the direct sire of the LDF's move to allow new beer and wine parlours, overriding the existing distance norms. Last year the prohibitionists had wrested an assurance from the government that no new liquor outlets would be allowed.

While the government claims the changes made in the policy were for facilitating beer and wine in prominent tourist centres where there are no liquor outlets now, the prohibitionists allege the government is doing this at the behest of liquor barons.

''The policy has been liberalised to benefit the liquor lobby in return for the 'help' they rendered the LDF in the just-concluded election," says Father Chandy Kurisumoottil, who is spearheading the anti-liquor campaign in north Kerala.

'The LDF accepted their help knowing fully well the government would have to dance to their tunes," added Father Eugene Parrera, an activist in Thiruvananthapuram, "We have seen several liquor contractors openly aiding LDF candidates during the campaign."

The prohibitionists alleged the LDF is trying to use 'tourism' as a cover to open new outlets throughout the state.

"This will result in Kerala being submerged in liquor," claims Kerala Madhya Nirodhana Samiti (an organisation of the prohibitionists) secretary E Kunnikrishnan. He terms the government's move as a betrayal of the people -- hadn't the LDF, after agitations by various sections, assured the people there would be no more new outlets?

The Madhya Nirodhana Samiti is now planning another agitation if the government goes ahead with the policy. It has already arranged for mass rallies, prayer meetings and satyagraha in different parts of the state from March 16, when auctions would start for fiscal 1998-99.

Excise Minister T Sivadasa Menon, meanwhile, said there was no substance in the allegation that the government was trying to allow new outlets indiscriminately. The LDF decided to change the policy after it was brought to its notice that tourism was being affected because there were no outlets in several prominent tourist centres.

"Since the government has identified tourism as a thrust area for growth, it is our responsibility to provide the necessary infrastructure," he explained, "The provision will be used very carefully."

Menon said liquor licences would be issued only after the state cabinet's approval.

The prohibitionists, however, are not convinced. They said allowing new outlets, whether in the name of tourism or other, would corrupt the locals -- as such, the existing outlets were being frequented more by the locals than tourists.

"Local youths acquire drinking habit from these joints and become addicts later," they said.

State Women's Commission chairperson Sugatha Kumari, for her part, lamented that the 'proliferation' of liquor outlets would corrupt women. Malayali girls would be attracted to liquor if more and more beer parlours are opened. This would bring about largescale prostitution, she claimed.

"The government's new policy will invite the curse of women all over the state," she said.

The prohibitionists are cut up with the Communists for not carrying forward the phased prohibition policy introduced by the previous United Democratic Front government. The new proposal comes at a time when they were expecting a reduction in the number of liquor outlets. They alleged the government, which was committed to implement the arrack ban, the high point of the UDF's policy, was allowing illicit-liquor trade to flourish throughout Kerala.

"The LDF has diluted the previous government's policy by bringing down the tax on foreign liquor. This has resulted in arrack consumers shifting to foreign liquor, negating the very purpose of the partial prohibition," they said.

The Opposition UDF is expected to take up the issue in the assembly's forthcoming budget session.

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