First, an obligatory salute to the Liquor God of India.
In April 2016, Bihar imposed a total ban on drinky drinks. The reason given by CM Nitish Kumar was that alcohol consumption leads to domestic violence. He explained that prohibition is supported overwhelmingly by women and children, who are victims of these acts of violence. He didn’t just ban it, but imposed crazy draconian punishments for those found possessing liquor.
On September 30, the Patna high court declared the alcohol ban illegal. Amongst other things, they pointed out that the liquor ban is an invasion of privacy and citizens should be allowed to consume what they want, even if it is alcohol. In response, prohibition man Kumar is now planning to bring in a stricter and much more stringent law to ban alcohol.
Only yesterday, Supreme Court stepped in and stayed the Patna High court order. The bench said: “Ban on liquor and fundamental rights do not go together.” After this intense flip-flop roller coaster ride, the Bihar government seems to have emerged victorious. Kumar must be quite happy right at this moment!
Alcohol laws in India are strange, to put it mildly. Drinking ages and consumption rules vary for every state. While some have more liberal consumption laws, there are those that completely ban potable alcohol. This week, we shall talk about booze, booze and more booze. And whether banning alcohol by law actually has any positive effect.
The Three Lists
To explain why laws regarding alcohol vary from state to state, we must first look at the three lists of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India: The Union List, State List and Concurrent List.
The first two contain subjects for which laws can be made by the Union or State government exclusively. For example, the Union list includes subjects such as defence, citizenship, railways, census etc., while the State list includes subjects such as police, public health, water resources, waste management and…
The concurrent list, on the other hand, includes subjects that both the Central and State governments can make laws about. It includes marriage and divorce, adoption, forests, protection of wildlife, education etc.
These three lists are vital for our democracy because it demarcates the responsibilities of our State government and Union governments. Things like defence must be handled by the Union (for obvious reasons). If that demarcation was not made in the constitution, every state *might* pass laws to have its own army.
#JustSaying.
It’s also important for police to be under the control of the state government because internal security challenges vary from place to place. The police forces are trained to handle law and order in a specific area, for a specific number of people. Which is why it’s on the State list.
So liquor comes under the state list. Every state is allowed to make different laws for dealing with it. Our Constitution says one more thing on the subject:
#ThankYouBapu
This technically means that every state shall aim to prohibit alcohol and other intoxicating drugs. So Kumar is, kinda, just following what the constitution says, especially when you take the “standard of living of its people and the improvement of public health” part into consideration. Because, you know, drinking does cause *some* damage to personal health and well being.
Bihar’s Draconian Booze regime
If you look at what is happening in Bihar, you will understand to what extremes this law can actually go. Here are the highlights of Bihar’s new and improved alcohol prohibition law.
- A person will pay a fine of 1 lakh to 10 lakh and go to jail for a term of seven years.
- People who allow their premises to be used for a congregation where liquor is served will be imprisoned for a period of ten years. This can be extended to life term.
- All adults of a family are liable to be arrested if liquor was found at their house.
- Collective fine would be slapped on villages and urban clusters (O_o) in case of habitual violation of the prohibition law.
- Errant officers will face three years’ jail and a penalty of Rs 1 lakh or both.
Basically, Bihar’s is now like a Monopoly game where all the Chance cards say only this:
Law and Order
Let’s talk about other states too!
Since it’s a state subject, alcohol bans through the ages for different states have been… amusing.
Take Maharashtra, for instance. Strangely enough, alcohol is banned in Gujarat today because of the ban imposed by Chief Minister Morarji Desai in undivided Maharashtra. Post-Independence, Desai implemented the Bombay Prohibition Act, 1949, which made the consumption of alcohol illegal across the state. But Bombay of the day was becoming wealthier and with wealth comes lots of drinky drinks.
There was a booming black market for liquor on which Bollywood movies like Bombay Velvet and Raees are based. In 1960, Gujarat split up with Maharashtra and took the prohibition with it. The Bombay Prohibition Act is still applicable in that state. Ergo, no booze for the Gujjuz. Meanwhile, Maharashtra revoked prohibition in 1972.
Manipur and Nagaland are two other states that have banned potable alcohol. The Manipur assembly put in a bill in July this year to lift this ban. The reason: there is a crazy black market of illicit alcohol being imported from Assam. The number of deaths due to this spurious alcohol is on a rise in Manipur; so bye bye prohibition.
Nagaland has similar problems. That same illicit alcohol from Assam is also being sold in large quantities in Nagaland. At one point, the Chief Minister of Nagaland TR Zeliang said, “My state is the ‘wettest’ dry state in the country.” Plus, both of these states were losing out on a tonne of revenue in the form of taxes on alcohol.
Fun fact: I was scouring the internet and found out that Lakshadweep, a union territory where alcohol is banned, has a special island called Bangaram where only alcohol is sold. A literally crazy booze Island!
Here is a nifty table I found on the various laws applicable in different states, along-with the drinking ages. (Source)
Keep this list handy if you are going on a cross country road trip!
Does Prohibition work?
Simple answer: NOPE.
Try doing this: Go to any kid and show her a nice toy. Then put the toy far away and tell the kid that she is prohibited to play with that toy. Why? Because it’s bad for her. Then you walk away. After you return, a few minutes later, there is a 99 per cent chance that the kid will be playing with the toy. What’s more, if she’s caught, the probability of her picking up said toy and making a run for it is very high.
It’s human nature to be curious about things that are prohibited. We get a natural rush of excitement when we do things that are unlawful. Which is probably why there are people drinking alcohol in Bihar despite prohibition.
How do we know this? Because there has been a spate of deaths due to alcohol poisoning. There you go. So much for prohibition.
As I mentioned earlier, the law imposed in Bihar is incredibly harsh. It actually seems like overkill. But what Kumar did in Bihar was a powerful political move. He is merely doing what he thinks his electorate want. Perhaps, a few years from now, when the real evil of black marketeering and illicit alcohol hits the state, he might be forced to rethink his decision. Only time shall tell.
In the end, I leave you with my favoritest journalist of the century, Ravish Kumar, to explain the situation of Alcohol ban in Bihar.
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