Bad case of arrested development

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The demand to allow the service and sale of alcoholic drinks on internal air routes is a sane and necessary one. The mad response to this suggestion made it seem as if India is stuck in some ridiculous time warp, where the State dictates to its people what to eat and what to drink. Surely, Indians can decide whether the want a drink or not, if their religion permits it or does not, rather than be told what to do in a democracy. To hear politicians of the CPM, BJP, Congress and others, who I have seen drinking privately, pretending not to drink when in a public space, attack this possible “permission”, smacks of the worst kind of double standards, sending out a signal that describes dishonesty. And, the absurd argument that people misbehave after having imbibed liquor cannot be taken seriously.

Our leaders have no determined response whatsoever to the horrors that confront the everyday lives of us Indians. When guns are fired in the air during marriages, occasionally killing people, or when women are abducted and raped, or when paedophiles romp the streets, or when druggies peddle their wares in the core areas of the Capital, these holier-than-thou men and women merrily turn a blind eye to those dreadful realities that stalk civil society. Insidious and dangerous activities continue unabated, as the privileged use police and security forces to protect themselves and not society. Not one such individual in power has made efforts towards a corrective. Why, then, are they getting hysterical about serving booze on planes? Their priorities are clearly skewed.