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.
There will always be those people on the fringes who will get drunk and misbehave, much like members of the legislative assemblies behave without drink, in full public view in front of television cameras. The improper and unwarranted behaviour, the yelling and abusing we see enacted on the floor of our Parliament by our elected representatives and those who make rules and policies to govern India, is equally appalling. Why, then, can we not drink an inflight drink? Why this perverse hypocrisy? Surely, those individuals who hate the stuff need not partake in it. Next, the State will determine what we should eat, wear, read, speak and ?think?, much like the terribly restrictive regimes of the recent past led by Hitler, Stalin and Mao, to name a few. We are now liberated from frightened robot-hood. Life means to experience, to create, to share, to think out of the box, and more.
The cultural argument that is spewed makes little sense. It comes from unlettered and conservative individuals who are more concerned about peripherals like drinking than the gruesome dowry deaths and wife-beating that occur often within their own extended families. Here is an amusing scenario?maybe Vijay Mallya should hire the services of Brinda Karat to fight the Battle for Booze. After all, you cannot let down the tribals by denying them mahua. And what will become of the poor toddy-tappers? The tribals are a large vote bank of nearly 8% of all Indians. They need to be appeased, don?t they?
What was somras?was it a fruit juice? We have an ancient and dynamic tradition with infusions of many cultures that are energetic and adaptive. Why are politicians trying to strap us into a straitjacket by killing our varied and layered cultural dimensions, our liberal tradition, our inbuilt ability to live and let live? Those who don?t want to drink should make their choice, and those who misbehave should be punished and not be able to bribe their way to ?freedom?.
It is bad and corrupt governance that needs to be disallowed. Corruption needs to be assaulted first, starting with correcting those who govern us.
Politicians and administrators must be forced to adhere to the rules that govern India, enshrined in the statute book, and then and then alone will they be able to enforce the law. Respect for the State can come no other way.
