Punjab Illicit Liquor Tragedy: Who is Responsible?

Punjab Today

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Tragically, 86 people lost their life to the latest illicit liquour tragedy in Punjab. In the midst of the coronavirus outbreak – the spiralling numbers of new cases and deaths, yesterday 944 and 19 respectively – this was one tragedy that could have been avoided a long time back.

How long back?

Was it when, during the election campaign, Captain Amarinder Singh swore on the Sikh holy book to break the back of the drugs mafia in Punjab? Was it when exactly two years back the people of Punjab held a weeklong mass movement: Maro Jaan Virodh Karo!

Was it when this year on May 11, senior state ministers walked out of a meeting with the Chief Secretary, over liquor revenue issues? It led to change of the appointment. Yet, the tragedy has taken place because except for the nominal change, the government did not follow through.

Was it during the previous Akali-BJP regime when such illicit liquor trade was patronised by political parties? A patronage that has not changed even as the new government has been in office for 3.5 years.

The fact about the liquor industry is that this is a hugely profitable sector for the government. Take for instance the government quota of liquor in the state has increased from 2.76 crore proof litres in 1980-81 to 18.35 crore proof litres in 2017-18. This is an increase of six and a half times, whereas the growth of the population is less than double.

The three kinds of liquor that exist in the system are the Indian Made Foreign Liquor, Country Liquor, and Home Brewed Liquor. The first two are sold by the government to earn taxes. They both use the same molasses base – ethanol.

The third kind is Home Brewed Liquor which is banned but exists in defiance to the first two kinds of spirits and is fairly common all across Punjab. A saying common in Punjab is that if you want to distil your own liquor, all you need to be prepared for is bearing the police beatings. Then enter the cycle of bribes and greasing palms of the police and administration.

What this tragedy has showed is that the home brewed liquor makers were not experts. From newspaper reports it is clear that in these illicit liquor deaths, the proportion of dilution of industrial liquor went wrong and led to the tragedy.

This shows the only advantage that the government supply has is of technology and expertise, not really of human concern or public morality. However, the antecedents to this tragedy are even deeper. They go back to the failed Green Revolution, to the militancy period.

The Green Revolution turned Punjab in to a huge chemical laboratory. Since the expert dictated proportions did not work on the ground, Punjab’s people started experimenting with chemicals to grow their crops. They started creating mixtures of fertilisers, of pesticides and insecticides – in non-prescribed proportions – to contain the devastation of their crops and contribute to their growth.

This devalued bookish knowledge and encouraged local engineering – jugaad. When militancy was curbed in 1990s, the police engaged cultural activists to turn people towards the pride of their culture and way of life. A song like Ghar di sharaab hove became hugely popular and legitimised home brewed liquor. Now the system is paying the price for such risky adventurousness.

This is why, it is not only the promise breaking politicians, or only the greedy for an extra buck administration, or only the police that looks the other way, or only the people who do not know restraints who are responsible for the tragedy. The whole system is responsible for the tragedy.

The twenty five arrested, the seven excise officials and six policemen suspended are merely the pawns the government is going to showcase as symbolic curbs on the illicit liquor business. Soon the arrested will get bail, the suspended will get back their jobs, and in the rigmarole of Punjab politics, the matter will be forgotten.

Instead, what is needed is a complete transformation of society including the police and administration. Will they rise to the occasion?

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Punjab Today

Punjab Today

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