Drinking to double standards

A duck walks into a bar and asks for a whisky... Actually, that joke probably won't work in Mumbai or in Maharashtra.

Because almost no one can afford to walk into a bar and ask for a drink in this city or this state, least of all a duck.
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The Maharashtra government, never one to shy away from squeezing every last drop from its citizenry, has decided to tax alcohol out of the skies. Having done that, it is now trying to restrict drinking as far as it possibly can.

Of course, being the government, it has come up with the most imaginative way it could think of increase the drinking age and increase taxes.

The ostensible reason comes not just from the desire to make the people pay for the excessive budgetary mistakes of the last two decades but also to save us the people from ourselves.

Having been driven to drink by bad governance, corruption and falling standards, the authorities have now decided that people are falling into bad habits and "social evils".

We have a love-hate relationship with alcohol in this country, usually connected with morality, Mahatma Gandhi and a nanny-attitude to the general public who are too foolish to think for themselves.
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It is no one's case that alcohol cannot become a dangerous addiction. But 5,000 years of human history should at least have made one thing clear prohibition does not stop people from doing "bad" things.
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The concept of bad changes over the years but this much is true: "Man is so skilful in flattering his vices, that he has even found means to render water poisonous and intoxicating" said Pliny in his Natural History in 79 BC.
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The fermentation of fruit and grains for enjoyment goes much further than that.

Those who lived in Mumbai in the days of prohibition will also remember that it led to smuggling and illicit distilleries. That is, people had no qualms about breaking the law when it came to their desire to get intoxicated.

This connection between the underworld and prohibition has been repeated enough times across the world for it to be inarguable.

Is it facetious to assume that our hallowed politicians think that we need a little extra spice in our lives by recreating a new breed of bootleggers? Dreams of Dawood running through the corridors of Mantralaya?

So what do we have here in Maharashtra today? On the one hand, a government which goes on and on about making Mumbai "world class", which earlier sounded inspiring and is now meaningless, except that it is also a euphemism for selling Mumbai to builders and developers and driving everyone except the very rich and the very foolish out of the city's limits.

A world class city however is not just about flyovers, sea links and tall buildings. It is also about standard of living. And a city where alcohol is taxed at almost 70 per cent of its market price in order to a) make as much money from poor sods as possible and b) discourage drinking is not world class at all.

A world class city would have world class health facilities, counselling and de-addiction centres to deal with those who overstep the mark of moderation and become health risks to themselves and their families.

We pay taxes for these precise reasons so that the government will look after us, our needs and our problems. Driving alcohol underground adds to health problems because it will make alcoholics scared to admit their problem and also people will drink poison which as we know will kill them.

But let's look at double standards here, for a bit.

The Maharashtra government has actively promoted wine-production in the state and the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation organises wine tours while the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation develops wine parks. Perhaps no one is allowed to drink the wine?

The worst is that this is fake moralising. Anything engineered to appeal to our "goodie-goodie" side is usually some vote-getting tactic and is unlikely to be rooted in reality.

One would reckon that the state had far bigger problems to deal with bad health and literacy standards, too many people living below the poverty line, farmers' suicides, a power crisis, falling industrial growth that try and attack an easy target.

As far as Mumbai is concerned, this will only make the city sink further down the scales as India's most liveable city. It's a thin line, as it is.

At the end of the joke, the duck drinks the whisky and walks out, telling the bartender to put it on his bill. For the rest of us, it's a heavy bill to pay.

Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist