Are you out of your mind!!!???
First of all, in theory, i would disagree with the government deciding who should drink or not. But we are not a society blessed with a good enforcement agency. Hence we cannot control the drinking problem. So, for this imperfect location, a draconian law prohibiting liquor consumption is necessary.
I am aware that liquor is freely available, as & when required in whatever quantities. The only disadvantage is that the state does not earn anything from such transactions. So, why should the state earn trying to kill its people? By enacting prohibition, the state has the following advantages:
1. Nobody comes out drunk on the streets (except rare instances). This leads to a high level of public security, making Gujarat one of the safest places to live.
2. Offenders can be booked for more than just drunk driving or public harassment. They can be booked for long & fines taken from them.
3. The state can officially deny free medical benefits to diseases arising from drinking & thus save itself a lot of mess. If there was no prohibition, the state was bound to admit those with drinking problems / diseases & create an enormous infrastructure for them. That will take away more than the earned revenues.
4. The state does provide loopholes like licenses for drinking to foreigners, NRIs, "health problems" etc. Its a safe way of earning, controlling drunk behavior & having a list of all those who drink officially.
5. It is legal to have parties with drinks for corporates who can take permanent or temporary licenses. Hence, the state does not suffer the problem of hospitality to outsiders.
6. Social drinking is as common as elsewhere, but only under wraps; and nobody walks on the roads after drinking, which is better! Also, because one has to pay a high price for the liquor, drinking is restricted. In addition, local liquor dens can be kept under control, and death due to drinking improper liquor among poor people is reduced (if not prevented completely)
7. Why the hell should the state allow for an activity that is harmful to oneself & others? If smoking & drugs are banned, why should liquor be allowed freely?
8. I would agree that we miss the famed pubs here. But the drunken brawls seen at pubs all over are a happy avoidance here, at the risk of sitting idle on weekends! UAE has a law where one cant be found drunk outside a pub! If we had such governance & enforcement, we would have happily opened pubs everywhere! But, with our system, prohibition (& then secret drinking) works better!
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p.s. im putting this on my blog too - its easier to read there
Dude !
I never figured you for a conservative. Well - about you views on drinking in gujrat per say-
I thought I’d add my own two cents.
I fundamentally disagree with the idea of alcohol prohibition. For the following reasons
1) a quick look at the united states gives you 2 very telling examples about prohibition. One is the alcohol prohibition in the 1920s and the other is the current “war on drugs” campaign that basically stems from the current state of drug prohibition. These two examples have a couple of things in common. –
a) that prohibition does not restrict access in anyway
b) that it creates a 300% (500% and more for drugs ) profit market that creates its own underground economic-power structure (better known as the mafia – al capone in his day – and the Columbian mafia nowadays) that later on - affect the mainstream structure (also known as corruption)
c) that morality and stigma are completely ineffective in the promotion of prohibition
d) that prohibition – when thought about – is unacceptable to a vast majority of the demography
2) drug prohibition today is probably one of the leading causes of deaths by drug overdose. There have been cases in Europe where mainstream treatment was simply not available for drug addicts as it was illegal for them to be caught with drugs. (I cannot substantiate this by facts – I came across this in a programme on the BBC which discussed drug prohibition )
3) is borrowed from pt 2 : one highly liberal group is actually seeking a repeal on the prohibition on drugs. The idea is to regulate the market for these drugs – reduce drug related crimes – and make mainstream treatment more accessible to addicts ( the biggest casualties of addiction are invariably from the downtrodden segments of society -) I think this seems logically applicable to alcohol also.
This makes a lot of sense to me.
there are also two more points of common sense that just really make a lot of sense- which area
1) ever prohibited rat poison ? – coz its bad for you???
2) Ever noticed that a massive segment of addiction (eg- fevicol inhalation , valium, prescription medicines etc are , by definition legal!!! ????)
(by the way dude ! your point “number 3” was just cold man! – how rude!)
4)I think the best lesson to be learnt is the laws developed around smoking. Whose basic principle goes – “you can buy it – but I don’t want any of ur smoke in my face” – which I think by all accounts is fair. Similar laws exist in maharashtra – drinking in public places w/o permit is illegal. That law regulates a lot of things.
5) my last two points are about gujrat specifically – u say that gujrat is the safest state in the country – I got two things to add to that -
firstly it may be safe – but come garba it is no doubt the horniest state in the country outstripping (literally) Bombay/maharashtra –
secondly – if you think that gujrat is a safe state because of the prohibition, then you must have an incredible view of people who take to drinks. – tell me the truth! – that new years morning, when I arrived drunk for that trip to the lake sanctuary – did you expect me to go on a pant stealing spree any minute?- were you suddenly on your guard? Did you have ‘100’ on speed dial??U DID DIDN’T U!!?? Hahahaha !
now that I think of it – pant snatching would’ve been fun!!!! MuuHAHAHAHA!! (twirls his thick tiger-moustache*HIC*)
and LASTLY!!!! –
on the question of prohibition in gujrat – I have a different take. Here I agree with you that prohibition in gujrat should be maintained.
But not because of gandhiji. Frankly I no longer believe there is any gandhian left in gujrat. We are more likely to find them, in part, in the furthest reaches of the world like Africa and the states!! ( oh wait ! we already found them there – Mandela and King! . whoops !!)
But anyways – prohibition in gujrat, for me, has always had a historic value.
Irawati Karve wrote in Yuganta of Gandhari’s curse on SriKrishna – about the destruction of the Yadava clan – The gujrat kingdom of that time. As a result of this, a drunken brawl had led to a civil riot which nearly wiped out the entire male population- and also incidently spelt the end of SriKrishna and his brother SriBalrama.
To me, it was very interesting to note that for thirty-five after the mahabharat war, “the yadava population had taken to drinking to merrymaking and lost their sense of discipline” (- C Rajagopalachari). And even after the rishi’s curse of the boy giving birth to an iron pastel – the king , there and then’ abolished drinking for all the yadava people.
And when this new law was broken after the pilgrimage – the gujrati men met their destruction.
Now I don’t believe that drinking causes mass riots – at least not at such a large scale. But I think the gujrat alcohol prohibition should be maintained as a matter of historic tribute. To me that feels more poetic.
Regards
jun
p.s. im putting this on my blog too - its easier to read there
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