Seventy-three precious lives, why lives–in fact it is 73 families, have been lost in the hooch (spurious liquor) tragedy in Gujarat so far. And it is still counting. The death toll will easily touch the three figure mark as several are in serious conditions in the hospitals.

The tragedy should be an eye-opener for the right thinking citizens of the country as Gujarat, the birthplace of father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi, is the only State in India where prohibition on liquor has been in force for decades. Despite several expert recommendations to lift the prohibition, the state government did not relax the prohibition policy.

What the government has achieved by enacting prohibition? It loses a whopping around Rs 2,000 crore in excise duty on liquor every year. And hundreds of families lose their bread-earners periodically in the state in hooch tragedies. At least four major hooch tragedies had taken place in the state in the last some years. The first tragedy occurred in the Sarangpur Daulatkhana locality of Ahmedabad in 1977, in which as many as 101 people lost their lives and another 215 were affected. This followed another major tragedy in Vadodara in 1989, which claimed 132 lives and affected 200 others.

In Sutrapada in Junagadh district in 1990, at least 17 people died and 115 others were hospitalised, while in the recent incident in Ahmedabad, more than a dozen people have been killed. Who should be blamed for this human tragedy? The drinkers? the bootleggers or the state government which conveniently waited for the tragedy to occur before taking any action?

I think the state government should shoulder the entire responsibility for the tragedy as it failed to contain the sale of illicit liquor in the state. While steadfastly imposing prohibition, the police department conveniently allowed the bootleggers to do their job.

The police department’s inertia is clearly evident from the fact that immediately after the incident the police have detained over 200 bootleggers in Bharuch district, 100 bootleggers in Ahmedabad, 23 bootleggers in Navsari district and several dens of bootleggers have been sealed by the police. Why did the police not do this before the tragedy, the citizens of this country deserve an answer from the Gujarat government.
Long live prohibition, long live bootleggers!