Individual
liberty is the only value placed in the sanctum sanctorum of the social and
political existence of modern man. The
veneration and preservation of the value has become a blind faith. Any
transgression condemned as blasphemy. It has also became the only prism through
which we evaluate any social and political phenomenon.
Consideration
for liberty envelops us from all around. And its impact are wide ranged and
felt everywhere. Disregard for institutions, disrespect for social customs and
relations, growing inequality of wealth, over emphasize on right over duties
and consumptive culture of capitalism are maladies of ‘liberty syndrome.’ The
arguments raised against prohibition in Indian context is also a symptom.
The choice
to consume alcohol often asserted as an inviolable individual right. It can, at
best, can be regulated, not banned. Prohibition can be an unwarranted excess of
state authority over individual choices. However, amidst the cries of
individual choices, we fail to recognize drinking as a social evil. Social
harmony, healthy life and human dignity are secondary to one’s right to choose.
Any of these values can be sacrificed at the altar of individual liberty.
Alcohol
prohibition is also portrayed as a failed policy. Many states like Andhra Pradesh
have withdrawn its implementation citing practical difficulty. They argue that
black market will emerge creating conditions for tragedies by consuming bad
alcohol. The history, as rightly pointed out, is dotted with failures of
alcohol prohibition. But history can also be created. In places where
prohibition has failed, active civil society support and vigilance was absent.
Law enforcement also need to be stringent and awareness campaigns are
essential. Such firmness and multi-faceted approach were often absent among our
political class. Such experiments doomed to fail.
But in the
case of Bihar, the severity of prohibition law, effective implementation and
participation of people in the initiative to take the policy as a movement
brings hope. The Nitish government need applause for taking the prohibition
initiative from a mere political cover-up to a conscious and concerted effort
for social transformation. Prohibition policy in Bihar promote society driven
and state supported way to eliminate a social evil. It is an exemplary approach
to initiate social progressiveness through consensus and participation, not by
dictation and imposition. Therefore, the policy, even if to withdraw on a later
date, would have deepened awareness and alertness against alcoholism. Therefore
the policy need to be welcomed as a bold experiment, rather than
pessimistically writing it off on the beginning itself.
Prohibition
policies are considered political gimmick to woo women voters. But why it
becomes so appealing? Because, women,
especially in the lower economic strata, is bearing the brunt of alcoholism
silently. They wish the policy will at last bring peace and happiness to their
families. It is the due duty of an elected government to address the concern of
the women through stern action and commitment. By doing so, the decision
becomes more democratic even if it violates the individual right to consume.
Hence, prohibition is not a political gimmick, but a democratic decision that
reflect the interest of majority, in this case, the poor women.
Some also
argues that alcohol is a respite from the agonies of daily life. It helps to
forget the pain, sadness, loneliness and work strain. But never the problems
get resolved by drinking. Alcoholism is a symptom of what have been wrong with
our society, not a medicine to cure our problems. Someone get addicted to
alcohol as a conscious choice. He or she often forced to choose alcohol to
escape deprivation caused from inequality from the loneliness. But, the poor alcohol
can’t rescue him. It does not pull him up from the sorrows. It just push him to
further deprivation and loneliness, completing an inescapable vicious cycle. On
other words, the roots of alcoholism is to be found in the hollowness of our
social, political and economic systems that doesn’t appreciate the human
dignity and his wholeness. However, to escape the vicious cycles, some concrete
and immediate policy action such as prohibition, though it is a superficial
solution, to be taken.
Other
arguments raised in support of alcohol ban are also equally valid. The
financial burden caused out of miseries of alcohol far outweigh the profit from
liquor sale. But the alcohol ban is strongly grounded on a moral base rather
than the economic merit. One need to keep away his right to consumption for the
larger societal good, to eliminate a social evil that destruct and degrade the
standard of living and the harmony in the society.
Another
argument expose the hypocrisy we follow in our modern life; the artificial and
untenable division of public and private. We do not accept an alcoholic in our
work place, public space, schools, theatres etc. An alcoholic is a nuisance for
others. Through rules and regulation, we condemn such practices. Then, why the
same is allowed in the private spaces and families as well? If an alcoholic
person is not accepted in public because of the nuisance, there is no reason to
allow it in our families as well. Then the argument comes up that the state
should be kept out in regulating our private matters. But the famous slogan
raised by feminist movement remind us that private is also politics. When women
and children are facing harassment, agonies and violence in their families due
to their alcoholic members and when it’s a persisting and all pervasive
problem, state can no more remain allusive to this social problem. By
prohibiting alcohol, state is not unnecessarily interfering in your personal
choice, but ensuring social justice for women and children and fulfilling its constitutional
commitment.
Therefore, someone
who place individual rights as a supreme and inviolable virtue will never get
to understand the revolutionary aspect of a genuine prohibitory order. One who
lament over impracticality of the ban, would never appreciate the scope of concerted
social and state action in the eradication of a social evil. By prohibiting
alcohol and by starting a concerted social movement, Bihar has set aside these
hallow arguments of libertarian pessimists and charted out a courageous course
in social policing. Regardless of the outcome, the sincerity and commitment
itself deserves appreciation.
