Our The State’s Election Commission is working overtime in Delhi to ensure that no booze is distributed among voters by political parties. “Voters cannot be wooed thus,” says the EC. So it is alright to offer rice at 2 rupees a kilo, and various other freebies, but a drink is not kosher.
The EC has also instructed all liquor vends not to sell more than 4 bottles to anyone – but as this news report says, the people are quite happy buying 2 bottles first and coming back 20 minutes later to buy 3 more!
The EC has also asked the Excise (ugh!) officialdom to keep an eye on 26 border points to see that no liquor is “smuggled” into Delhi – and we thought this was one country. The Excise (ugh!) officialdom has seized 1300 bottles. That’s a lot of booze for one big Excise-EC party.
Of course, polling day will be a “dry day” – and tipplers I interviewed the other night said they didn’t want to vote; they just wanted their booze. They wanted to set up a Daaru Party! I couldn’t help, since I am with the Ganja Party.
But the news gets curiouser and curiouser: it seems that the people of Delhi are not drunk and disorderly at all, while two EC officials “exchanged fisticuffs” and a police case has been registered! Wonder what bad stuff the EC guys were smoking.
Who will guard the guardians? This is a very old question in Politics.
In the meantime, read “A Disturbing Encounter” by Ramesh Ramanathan, which talks about an Indian taxi driver in Dubai, where there is no democracy – and why he thinks this is far better than conditions in democratic India.
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