The Left Front in its 2016 election manifesto had promised to reopen all bars, but reduce availability of liquor in the state.
After a lapse of two years, the politics of liquor is brewing once again in Kerala. If it was the infamous “bar bribery” case which cost the Congress-led United Democratic Front government dearly in the 2016 Assembly elections, apparent dilution of its liquor policy has now hit the ruling Left Front government in the state. If in 2016 it was a case of arbitrary closure of over 700 bars in the state, now it is all about making more liquor in the state aimed at self-sufficiency. The Left Front in its 2016 election manifesto, while insisting that it was against any ban on liquor sale, had promised to reopen all bars, but reduce availability of liquor in the state, known for its legions of worshippers of Bacchus. And the CPM-led Left Front swept the elections on that wave of hope, trashing all resistance from the church and women. The Congress may have got a majority of women’s votes, but CPM won the elections and soon opened all the bars, even circumventing rules that prohibit the sale of liquor near schools and places of worship. The promise to reduce availability of liquor or dissuade people from drinking was conveniently forgotten. In fact, during elections, there were allegations that the Left was being financed by bar owners in the hope that once in power it would ease curbs on liquor sale. That was exactly what has happened. Only now the tables have been turned, with the opposition Congress alleging large scale corruption in the recent sanctioning of a distillery and three breweries in the state. According to the Leader of the Opposition, Ramesh Chennithala, the allocation has been done purely with the “knowledge and connivance” of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Excise Minister T.P. Ramakrishnan. “This is blatant violation of the existing norms and the government has not mentioned this in the excise policy or in the Governor’s policy speech. There was no mention of this even in the LDF election manifesto. As per a 1999 order, no new distillery or brewery cannot be allocated. No government has given sanction to any distilleries after this order. But the present government is quoting the same order of 1999, which denies allocation of new breweries or distilleries,” he said.
On the government’s part, Excise Minister Ramakrishnan said distilleries and breweries were sanctioned as per LDF policies. There is no corruption involved in the decision, he said, adding such a decision “did not require a Cabinet sanction”. However, he did not comment on the charge that it was not even discussed with Front partners. State secretary of the CPI, the second largest constituent of the Left Front, Kanom Rajendran had gone on record that his party was not consulted about the allocations. Apparently the decision was taken by the Chief Minister even before the state witnessed the deluge. This has come to light only now after the Congress raised the issue. This also throws light to the fact that the state never had any liquor policy as such. It was done at the whims and fancies of the rulers of the time. The UDF’s liquor policy was born not out of its convictions against drinking, but purely out of political compulsions on the part of the then Congress Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and his state party president at the time, V.M. Sudheeran. Then the policy to close down all bars was the product of one-upmanship between the two, a fact that was as clear as daylight to the public. The political drama enacted at the time, bribe accusations by the liquor lobby resulting in the resignation of Kerala Congress party founder and the then Finance Minister K.M. Mani had done enough damage to the body politic of UDF than any hard liquor could. So on the face of it there is nothing wrong on the part of the Left Front’s latest decision on liquor. However, the government, it is announced, has decided to keep on hold, for the time being, more allocations planned earlier.
When questioned about the allocations, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said laughing “no money changed hands”. That was no joke. Liquor is perhaps the main source of income for all political parties in Kerala. The only difference here is that if the money goes into individual politician’s pockets in the case of other parties, in the case of CPM it goes into the coffers of the party. So the question is how much money was deposited at AKG Centre, CPM state headquarters at Thiruvananthapuram. No one will know. Meanwhile, the Congress will continue to make some more noise in the days to come. But the fizz will die down in no time. Congress’ natural ally in matters of spirit, the Kerala Catholic Bishops Council is “indisposed” at present. As the council is busy putting the genie of a sex scandal back in the bottle, it cannot be expected to back Congress in its latest fight against the liquor bottle. Moreover, the KCBC has no answer as to how the drinking habit grows by the day among believers of the faith or rather what the Church had done to dissuade its community members, without doubt the largest alcohol consumers in the state, from imbibing it day after day. Forget all that. More distilleries will be opened in the state in due course. Queues in front of liquor vends will grow longer and longer. More will be initiated to the “cause”. If not anything, as political commentator and known CPI face, Advocate Jayashankar put it, Pinarayi Vijayan can go down history as someone who had made Kerala self-sufficient in liquor.