Let me say it clearly, Arvind Kejriwal is a Bania profiteering from the miseries of others. The recent move of increasing taxes is clearly Savarna Hindu bias against alcohol. Alcohol is one of the few luxuries which one can afford to survive the day to day miseries of the current economic system. Making alcohol expensive to restrict its consumption (or to fill the coffers of the governments run by the privilege, who use it for their foreign travel, tax-free accommodation and other services) is clearly stupid. People will keep consuming liquor, they have been doing that even before we established a taxation and collective governance system.
By increasing the prices of alcohol, the government is not doing a favour to working poor either. Poor like the rest of us won’t stop consuming alcohol, they will keep having it. Higher prices of alcohol mean higher spending on alcohol and then the foolish Savarna fellas will declare ‘oh the poor people spend most of their earning in drinking, we should ban alcohol, they will be able to save more money.’ Our understanding of why people drink is shallow and is based on the foundations of fictional religious morality.
That said, Baniyas are known for exploiting misunderstanding, they will raise the prices of things which we need and help us forget our day to day miseries for their greed. Higher alcohol prices won’t stop or restrict consumption, they would strengthen the market of low cost, low price badly prepared illicit liquor, the consumption of which can be fatal.
Tamil Nadu is an outstanding example of high alcohol prices and consumption of chemically brewed cheap alcohol causing a vast number of deaths. In the past decade, the number of fatalities has come down but the cheap alcohol is still being brewed with chemicals.
If you trace this bias against alcohol, it goes back to a Brahmin: C. Rajagopalachari, former Prime Minister, later Chief Minister of Madras Presidency. He banned homemade Arrack and his Gandhian allies suggested restriction on alcohol by higher taxation. Today, a lot of working poor Tamils consume chemically prepared Arrack, thanks to the higher prices of alcohol and the foundations of liquor policy laid by Rajagopalachari. Tamil Nadu gave the direction to India’s liquor policy and the Brahminical bias is sprinkled in the Directive Principles of State Policy of the Indian constitution.
The other thing which one finds in the public discourse is that alcohol causes domestic violence. This correlation between domestic violence and alcohol consumption is very much a Savarna Gandhian hypothesis, which is based on the ignorance of the factors like patriarchy and the anti-poor economic system. Will restriction on alcohol consumption stop violence and unnecessary spending? No. One can look at Islamic societies. They have severe restrictions on alcohol yet the treatment of women is less than equal. The poor in Islamic societies may not be spending money to get high but money is being spent on unessential consumption.
We need to ask why are working poor spending a large part of their income on alcohol? If the distribution of alcohol is restricted by making alcohol expensive through taxes, will they be able to save enough? Or imagine if the alcohol prices were slashed down to one-tenth of the current price, which is very much possible. Will the working poor be able to save money and spend it on something much more worthy? I haven’t found a perfect answer to it.
Why is the working poor drinking a lot? Is it for pleasure or is it to forget the miseries of the current economic system or is there some bigger concern for which we are making a very small effort. Why is there domestic violence? Is it because of deep-rooted patriarchy, toxic masculinity or because of alcohol consumption? If patriarchy, toxic masculinity and a crushing economic system are the reason behind the domestic violence, then does the ban on alcohol or restriction on alcohol consumption make any sense.
Why can’t we mature ourselves and deal with the real questions of why people drink alcohol, instead of focusing our energies to increase alcohol prices and restrict its consumption. And, this bias against drinking alcohol should be thrown out of the window.
Maleccha 