When it comes to raising a toast, Nitish’s Bihar can learn from Yogi’s Uttar Pradesh and Manipur

Manipur is no longer a dry state. The incumbent BJP government has decided to scrap the ban that lasted 30 years. A gazette notification issued on 6 December makes it official. The new policy is expected to boost the state’s annual tax revenue, besides putting a check on the sale of spurious liquor and hard drugs, which had taken up the spot left vacant by the alcohol ban. Bans in India are notoriously difficult to roll back once in place; they spawn their own mafias and vested interests. The Manipur government deserves to be applauded. For those grumbling about the timing of the announcement given the civil unrest in the state: Please, let’s not mix up issues. We are not making a cocktail here. In the wake of this landmark decision, the Confederation of Indian Alcoholic Beverage Companies (CIABC) has written to the Bihar government to reconsider its prohibition policy. While many such letters have been mailed in the past, this one makes some innovative and concrete proposals. The CIABC Director General Vinod Giri feels that Bihar can end prohibition, without compromising on the desired social goals. “We have suggested that liquor factories would keep 50 per cent of their workforce as women leading to true economic empowerment of women. We have also proposed a special cess on the sale of liquor to fund alcohol de-addiction and rehabilitation.” The legitimate liquor market in the state is estimated at 10,000 crore per annum. Giri went on to point out, “Repeated hooch tragedies have so far seen over 300 deaths since 2016, close to 500,000 cases are pending in courts clogging the justice delivery system, and around 300,000 people have been put behind bars for something which the rest of the country finds perfectly lawful.” The brunt of prohibition is borne by those at the bottom of the economic ladder. For the middle-class of Patna, their preferred brand is a phone call away, via the police-politician-bootlegger nexus, only the rates have increased. Meanwhile, Nitish Kumar has ordered a survey starting mid-December to gauge public mood on prohibition. To understand the ban on alcohol, it’s worth stepping back and examining if policies banning any substance have worked anywhere in the world. The war on drugs, spearheaded by Reagan’s America in the 1980s, is now widely acknowledged to have failed in its mission. It was under US pressure that Rajiv Gandhi’s regime made marijuana illegal in India. In America, all it has done is to incarcerate thousands of impoverished black Americans and Hispanics in privately-run profit-based prisons. Banning creates cartels that flood the market with substandard products. As British journalist Johann Hari writes in his book, Chasing the Scream, “The one thing the cartels fear — more than anything else — is a regulated, legal market.” Addiction to alcohol is a mental and social health issue and needs to be addressed as such. Criminalising the user and shaming him is not the solution. What Nitish Kumar should be doing, instead of habitually launching surveys to fix social ills, is to look at what’s happening in Uttar Pradesh. UP’s chief minster doesn’t drink, but that hasn’t stopped him from formulating a progressive excise policy. The new amended policy has killed the mysterious monopoly of the corrupt big boys and enabled small businessmen and women to enter the fray. Two major changes here: The transition from a licence-fee based auction model to an e-lottery system, which has more transparency and avoids favouritism in allotting licenses; and a cap on the number of shops — only two shops per person are allowed. Women are now opening and running liquor stores, unthinkable a few years ago. The state-wide data maintained by the excise department shows that out of a total of 28,930 retail liquor shops that have been floated by the department for the 2023-24 fiscal year, 7,216 have gone to women, which translates to 25 per cent of the retail liquor business. The change is visible across the state, not just the flagship cities of NOIDA or Ghaziabad. For instance, in 2021, Rannvijay Singh Singha (of MTV Roadies fame) and Prateek Sachdeva (owner of a Mediterranean cuisine chain) announced the launch of five women-friendly liquor stores under their venture Liquor Land in Lucknow. The numbers tell a story. When Yogi Adityanath came to power in 2017-18, the revenue from liquor sales stood at Rs 14,000 crore. In FY2023, this has tripled to Rs 42,250 crore. Not only has consumer experience changed for the better, much-maligned Uttar Pradesh has left Karnataka — traditionally the state that generated maximum revenue from alcohol — far behind. Having grown up in Allahabad, I remember the days when thekas had a goonish goonda-ish air about them. There was a time when Uttar Pradesh and Bihar were considered part of the same undifferentiated hinterland, best embodied in the “item” song from Shool whose lyrics went, “Main to aayi hoon UP Bihar _lootne”. Not anymore, certainly as far as having a tipple is concerned. A note on Gujarat to end with. We know that it’s a prohibition state out of deference and respect for Gandhi. But as Bob Dylan sang, “The times they are a-changin’”. A ground report on The Print talks about GIFT City, Prime Ministeemr Narendra Modi’s pet project: “People who work here say that this shiny new smart city lacks a soul, buzz, and booze, which are necessary accessories for a young urban workforce in the new India.” It quotes an employee-resident as saying, “They have made it beautifully, but the intention was to make this like Singapore. That objective seems to have taken a back seat… In banking and finance, liquor and a buzzing city are part of the culture.” Looks like GIFT City is all work and no play. The ruling dispensation has made its reputation as a government that is not afraid of unyoking the country from the baggage of the past, colonial or otherwise. It believes in the clean slate. From my experiential and anecdotal knowledge of Ahmedabad and Baroda, I don’t see the removal of prohibition causing an uproar and outcry in Gujarat. Only the BJP can make this bold move. Oh, but if wishes were horses. The writer is the author of ‘The Butterfly Generation: A Personal Journey into the Passions and Follies of India’s Technicolour Youth’__, and the editor of _‘House Spirit: Drinking in India’.Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views. Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News, India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.