Nitish Kumar Unfazed Even As Death Toll Rises To 39 In Chhapra Hooch Tragedy
By A Special Correspondent
First publised on 2022-12-15 10:10:05
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"If you consume liquor, you will die" said Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar today when questioned about the death of 39 (at last count) people in the hooch tragedy at Chhapra in Saran district in the state. What kind of answer is this from the chief minister of a state which has implemented prohibition but liquor (most of the times spurious) flows all over the state? Is it not the government's duty to ensure that liquor is not available? Instead, the chief minister effectively says that his government is unable to stop the sale of spurious liquor and if you drink it be ready to die.
The booze ban has not worked on ground level and several people have lost their lives, since it was introduced on April 5, 2016, by consuming spurious liquor sold surreptitiously (and sometimes openly with the collusion of a corrupt administration). Kumar had then said that all kinds of liquor will be banned in the state. But the ground reality is liquor is still available in the state for those willing to pay the price. In case of the poor, the knife cuts from both sides - they pay a higher price and often get spurious liquor and pay with their lives too.
The irony is that since the liquor ban, bootleggers and manufacturers of spurious liquor have prospered giving birth to a strong liquor mafia. The government has suffered as it gets no revenue from these operations. Crooked government and police officers have prospered through cut money. The ban is totally ineffective on the ground. Yet an adamant and inflexible Nitish Kumar is not ready to reconsider his decision. He even said that those who asked him to reconsider the ban in the assembly had turned drunkards ("shaarabi ho gaye ho tum").
The idea behind the ban was noble - women of the household often complained that their husbands squandered all their earnings in drinking and worse, beat them up when they came home inebriated. Kumar scored big with women voters when elections were held after the ban. But noble intentions alone without the corresponding focus on enforcement and vigilance makes matters worse as has happened in Bihar. The percentage of those who have kicked the habit post the ban is much lower than those who now pay a higher price to get their daily high. Kumar must either enforce the ban strongly and ensure that liquor is not sold at all or must reconsider his decision and make the genuine stuff available through official channels so that the poor do not lose their lives and the state earns revenue.
