oppn parties Liquor Shops Open In Lockdown - It Happens Only In India

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  • Kolkata witnesses traffic snarls on the first day of the Durga Puja festival as revellers start pnadal-hopping
  • Neha Bora was subsequently released and Dipke is to appear before a magistrate today at noon
  • Delhi Police detained Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke, Neha Bora of AISA, student leaders and supporters ahead of a rally in Connaught Place demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's resignation. The protest followed the detention and jailing of two CJP leaders earlier in the week over demonstrations at Jantar Mantar
  • The Reserve Bank of India is considering further monetary tightening to counter capital outflows and increase the cost of betting against the rupee, according to bankers and analysts cited by Reuters. The measures follow recent rate increases and steps to drain liquidity as pressure on the currency and inflation concerns persist
  • India directed oil marketing companies to stop diverting sugar-based feedstocks for ethanol production in the 2026–27 supply year, according to a new tender issued on Friday. The companies have invited bids for 11 billion litres of ethanol made from alternatives including corn and broken rice, amid concerns about domestic sugar supplies and prices
  • Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said India's trade imbalance with China was growing sharply and attributed the problem partly to restrictions on Indian goods and services entering the Chinese market. China subsequently said it was ready to work with India to address mutual economic and trade concerns; India's trade deficit with China reached $69 billion in the first half of FY2026–27, up 27% year-on-year
  • Indian equity benchmarks extended their recovery on Friday, with the Sensex rising 413.66 points to close at 74,729.27 and the Nifty 50 gaining 148.80 points to settle at 23,146.15. Information technology shares, including Tech Mahindra, Infosys and TCS, helped lift the indices
  • India defeated Zimbabwe by four wickets in the opening women's T20 International in Raipur, taking a 1–0 lead in the three-match series. Deepti Sharma and Niki Prasad combined in an 82-run stand after India's top order collapsed, helping the hosts chase down Zimbabwe's total of 114 for five
  • Indian wrestler Komal won bronze in the women's 59 kg category at the Under-23 World Wrestling Championships in Las Vegas, defeating Kazakhstan's Viktoriia Khusainova 7–2. Fellow Indian Amruta Pujari advanced to the women's 72 kg final after recording two pinfall victories
  • Indian shuttler Jagsher Singh Khangurra secured a bronze medal at the BWF World Junior Badminton Championships in Cairo
  • The Supreme Court of India upheld the Bombay High Court's decision quashing the 2020 write-off of ₹8,415 crore in additional tier-1 bonds issued by Yes Bank (Yes Bank). The court ruled that the bank's administrator lacked the authority to extinguish the bonds under the final reconstruction scheme, strengthening bondholders' claims
  • The Supreme Court issued notices to the Election Commission of India, Delhi Police and opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav, in separate petitions concerning electoral-roll revision and protests held in Delhi on October 10–12. The court also directed the preservation of CCTV footage linked to allegations of police excesses
  • The Supreme Court ruled that a person converting from Hinduism to Islam cannot automatically claim backward-class reservation benefits in the new religious community solely on the basis of their previous caste status. The judgment upheld the Madras High Court's decision striking down a 2024 Tamil Nadu government order that permitted such certification for specified communities
  • The Election Commission of India ordered a Special Summary Revision of electoral rolls in 14 states and three Union Territories, using January 1, 2027, as the qualifying date for voter eligibility. The draft rolls are scheduled for publication on November 12, claims and objections will be accepted until December 11, and the final rolls are due on January 4, 2027
Delhi HC refuses to ban CJP's Tiranga rally at Central Park in Connaught Place today /////// Police says will control and regulate it /////// NDMC closes the park for the public on Friday and Saturday
oppn parties
Liquor Shops Open In Lockdown - It Happens Only In India

By Slogger
First publised on 2020-03-24 11:03:59

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Holding an extreme view and carting the ball out of the park is what interests him most. He is a hard hitter at all times. Fasten your seatbelts and read.

Punjab and Kerala have unwittingly (or given the financials involved, maybe knowingly) classified liquor as an essential item and have allowed liquor shops to remain open during the lockdown. Hence, tipplers need not worry. Their elected representatives have for once acknowledged their pain and have done something to alleviate it.

It is another matter that in these times, your daily alcohol intake is less important than protecting you from Covid-19. One had the occasion to witness the mad scramble (in Kolkata) outside liquor shops the day before the lockdown started in West Bengal. Disregarding all safety norms, people were standing in queues without maintaining a safe distance, were spitting on the roads, pushing each other and shouting in each others' faces. If even one of them was an asymptomatic carrier of the virus, it was a sure recipe for community transmission.

In any case, if people are so addicted to the brew, they needed to have the sense to stock up before the lockdown. There is absolutely no need to keep liquor shops open. It defeats the purpose if you allow things which lead people to party with friends and liquor is definitely one of them. Even if people decide to stay at home, they might have the urge to party if they know liquor shops are open. Also, states bordering Punjab and Kerala have kept liquor shops closed. Hence, people from those states will make a beeline for border towns in the two states to buy liquor, adding to the crowds and increasing the risk.

In fact, such is the draw of liquor that when people came to know that hand sanitizer is made up almost entirely of alcohol, they started wondering whether direct consumption of liquor would give them immunity from getting infected since sanitizing hands was said to prevent infection. There was a rumour in the US that spraying the body with alcohol would prevent one from getting infected.

But the Punjab and Kerala governments have done a disservice to the community by allowing liquor shops to remain open during the lockdown. In India, there are many things that a given set of people can call essential. If the administration is to allow shops selling those things to keep open, there would be no lockdown for all practical purposes. Drinking liquor is the private preference of the citizens and no one can object to that if it is not done in a public place. But congregating before liquor shops during a lockdown is not to be allowed for health reasons.

Picture not of actual crowds during the lockdown but used for representational purpose

 

 

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