Easy food? No. Easy alcohol? Yes!
The recent liquor policy rolled out by the Telangana government has invited voices of deprecation from various sections of the society. The K Chandrashekar Rao government has quite ineptly handled the issue of prohibition of liquor. In fact it’s not about prohibition anymore. According to the new policy, the Telangana government will provide liquor at cheaper rates. Many addicted men who spend their paltry earnings on the drink, miss out their work and moreover vent out their anger and frustration by physically abusing women in their families. Won’t this policy actually worsen the situation? We fear, it will!
Since many years, the women of Dubakunta village in Nellore district of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh have been raising their voice for the prohibition of liquor distribution. They even initiated a movement back in early 1990s to allay their trepidations after the men community started to fall under the vicious influence of liquor. Politicians saw an opportunity in this movement to hog votes and eventually as the elections approached, the Telugu Desam Party promised absolute prohibition. However, the subsequent governments had different plans as they found it “difficult” to implement the promise. They had plans of emulating the liquor distribution model followed in Maharashtra where liquor is made available in sachets. This step of the government drew criticism, and the only defensive thread bare argument it had was that the decision aimed at avoiding the consumption of illicit liquor that may have serious effects on the health of the consumers.
Now again, certain women groups have been up in arms because of the wide scale distribution of liquor in areas of Telangana. According to the women of the rural and urban households, the root cause behind all their worries is the subjugation of the men of their families by the intense desire to consume alcohol. Women from rural areas have also pointed to the fact that in their villages it is easier to access alcohol than safe drinking water.
The most obfuscating part of the entire episode is the willingness of the government to provide alcohol easily and efficiently, rather than providing appropriate resources to the rural people so that they can lead a life of comfort. Again the actions of the government are in stark contrast to the poll promises. People in power have in fact prioritised the availability and accessibility to liquor whereas it is expected of them to make nutritious food items easily available so that the malnourished kids don’t face health problems in years to come due to deficiency of essential nutrients. The reason cited by the government to defend its decision to provide alcohol at cheaper rates is in itself a self-contradicting opinion.
According to the Government, the new policy has been introduced while keeping in mind the perilous repercussions of the consumption of illicit liquor and the need of keeping addicts away from it. But this is like giving them mild poison at a cheaper rate so that they don’t die early due to consumption of some other deadlier poison.
Hypocrisy, isn’t it?
For any sane administration, priority should be to provide facilities that may help in making miserable lives more liveable. In rural areas there so many government schools that are almost defunct due to unavailability of funds and more importantly due to unwillingness of political class to revive them. There are hospitals in these areas that have doctors but they shrug off their responsibility as there is no higher authority to keep a check on them. But yes, there is easy availability of liquor as liquor is something that will help them incoming back to power. This might sound crazy as how can liquor help these shysters in assuming power again. But this is the truth. Okay so let’s try understanding this.
It’s an unarguable point that in a rural family, the male members hold the ultimate decision making power. Women are suppressed at every point of time. Now if the man is an addict, he would for sure vote for the party that would make liquor easily accessible to him and therefore the female members with no other choice will vote for the same party due to strong insistence from men of their family. The addict men are least concerned about the medical and educational facilities.They are least concerned about the education of their children. All they want is liquor intake day in day out. Now these politicians have got hold of this point and therefore they don’t see any need of spending money on education and Medicare. If only providing alcohol serves the wider purpose then why spend extra money on things that don’t concern the “addict” men community.
Another nonplussing action of the Telangana government is the launching of awareness campaigns through dance and music programs. These programs are used as a medium to communicate to rural masses the dire consequences that follow the consumption of drugs and alcohol. Isn’t it sheer hypocrisy? But then, this very notion of being hypocrite has helped politicians in fooling the uneducated lot of the populace and why just the uneducated, educated lot has been its victim too.
