PRESSBUREAU
Srinagar: The ruling National Conference and opposition People’s Democratic Party are trading barbs over alcohol consumption and sale in J&K.
The NC president, Farooq Abdullah, said people will not stop drinking alcohol even if it is prohibited and the state would lose revenue, while the PDP says why
can’t J&K be a dry state like Gujarat, especially when the administration and government is running a campaign against drugs—Nasha Mukt Abhiyaan.
Both parties are trying to gain political mileage over the issue, but neither has taken any steps to either prohibit the sale of alcohol or move toward regulating its consumption.
“I don’t drink alcohol, but those who do will continue doing so. If they don’t get it here, they will get it from elsewhere,” Abdullah told reporters in Srinagar. The J&K government has maintained that the liquor sector remains a steady source of revenue. Over the past three financial years, liquor sales have generated over Rs. 3,450 crore in J&K.
Abdullah said that Morarji Desai, when he was Prime Minister of India, had advised his father Sheikh Abdullah, in the 1970s, to ban alcohol in J&K. “My father replied that if the Government of India would compensate the revenue J&K earns from liquor sales, he would ban it,” said Abdullah, adding, “today if the GoI provides similar support, we will ban
alcohol.”
In an indirect reference to PDP, Abdullah said those who consume alcohol did not object when wine shops were opened in almost every corner and village of the region. “They are criticising just for the sake of it, and I know who is pulling their strings,” said Abdullah.
Earlier, the PDP launched a sharp attack on the NC asking why the elected government cannot ban liquor in J&K as has been done in Hindu-majority states like Gujarat and Bihar. “It is unfortunate that Omar Abdullah, who is the CM of the Muslim-majority region, does not respect their sentiments and sensitivities. Why does he take a U-turn on many of the things
he had said... NC got a strong mandate of 50 MLAs and issuing an order to ban alcohol in J&K is a 5-minute job,” said Iltija Mufti of PDP.
Members of both parties have also exchanged heated remarks on social media, sometimes even attacking personal lives to gain political advantage.
The J&K CM Omar Abdullah had also made a controversial remark regarding liquor consumption saying that “no one is forced to go to a liquor shop and it is meant for those who are permitted by religion to consume alcohol.”
The exchanges are taking place at a time when the Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha-led administration is running a Nasha Mukt Abhiyan in J&K, organising awareness drives and cracking down on drug trafficking networks.
“Both drugs and alcohol severely harm society, and the government cannot justify acting against one while remaining silent on the other. J&K is a Muslim-majority region where alcohol consumption is socially and religiously discouraged,” said Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.
He said the first step by the new government in Tamil Nadu was to shut down 700 liquor shops. “Ongoing campaigns against drug networks will not achieve the desired results if action is not also taken against alcohol, which is also destroying families,” said Mirwaiz.
