Patna: Former Bihar Chief Minister and NDA alliance partner Jitan Ram Manjhi have made headlines with his remarks suggesting citizens to consume liquor after 10 pm 'like big people'. He also claimed that drinking two pegs of alcohol has medicinal benefits.
Subsequently, Manjhi's statement became a topic of discussion in Bihar, a state where the sale and consumption of liquor are strictly prohibited under the Bihar Prohibition and Excise Act, 2016. "If liquor is consumed with passion then it's harmful but if it is taken as medicine, it is beneficial for one's health.
Two pegs of alcohol are beneficial for health and I have read this in several journals. Many rich and influential people drink liquor in Bihar after 10 pm and they go to bed by 11 pm. I don't want to reveal those names. Our people do not get food to eat but consume country-made liquor on empty stomachs and keep on stumbling here and there due to which they are caught," Manjhi said in Bihar's Kaimur district.
"The act of losing control after drinking liquor really hurts me. Several times, I have asked them to drink in a moderate way like rich people and sleep peacefully. I strongly object to the way Bihar police arrest the poor ones, while big shots get away after offering bribes. Police trouble poor people unnecessarily but influential and rich people get away from the police," Manjhi further said.
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Bihar completed six years of Liquor Law, with over 4.5 lakh people arrested during this time period for the violation of the prohibition. Notably, despite Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's claims that more than 1.5 crore people have left liquor since the law's enforcement, deaths related to hooch have continued in the eastern state, raising questions on the implementation of the prohibition law, especially in rural areas.
According to Bihar government data, close to 170 people have died in the last year due to the consumption of spurious liquor in more than 12 districts of Bihar. The latest incident took place three days back when three youths died after allegedly consuming spurious liquor in the Alamganj area of the capital Patna.
As per the latest data available with ADG (Headquarters), 13.87 lakh liters of liquor has been seized between January and May 2022. Among these, the maximum, 1.36 lakh liters, was seized in Patna.
When the prohibition was implemented, the figure of anticipated annual revenue loss was Rs 5000 crore. Recently, however, Nitish Kumar claimed that the state had recovered from revenue loss owing to the liquor ban from taxation on other goods. So far, three amendments have been made to the liquor law.
Physician Dr. Diwakar Tejashwi, while speaking to the ETV Bharat, said, "Consumption of liquor depends on the health condition of the person. However, it's true that different research and journals have proved that two daily pegs of liquor, 30 ML each, help people get good sleep compared to the normal pattern. The quality of the liquor should also be good, not the local ones. People facing liver problems should not consume liquor."
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Asked about the prohibition in the state, Patna-based political expert Dr. Sanjay Kumar said, "Prohibition has always been an issue of debate, and going by past examples, it has miserably failed in other states like Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Haryana. It has rather increased the case of bootlegging and smuggling in the state as the case of liquor recovery keeps coming on from different districts of Bihar."
"Most importantly, Bihar is surrounded by states like Jharkhand, West Bengal, and Uttar Pradesh, where there is no prohibition. The task force responsible for making prohibition effective is not active. The state government has failed to break the nexus of the police and liquor mafia. Instead of maintaining law and order, which is the primary job of the police, they are engaged in other work and they take it as a burden," he further added.
