Cheers!

61 years ago to this day, Mahatma Gandhi was killed by an assassin’s bullet. Exactly 61 years later, the hottest topic being debated is “pub culture”: for example, the lead editorial in the ToI of today, entitled “Not Just Saffron,” laments the fact that both the BJP as well as the Congress contain “culture vultures” who believe that it is their duty to society to oppose the consumption of alcohol – via strong State action. I had earlier termed this “Gandhian Violence.”

Yet, in these 61 years, the tide has turned: the overwhelming opinion in the Young India of today is in favour of Liberty. Even the daughter of a BJP chief minister who opposes pub culture has come out in opposition to her father. Ha ha.

61 years ago, the nation said “Hey Ram.”

Today, the nation is saying “Cheers.”

And it is not true that drinking alcohol is confined to the upper classes. Here is a news report from West Bengal on the hooch and other deadly spirits that the poor there consume. The statistic at the end of the report is chilling: 7.3 million cases of “country spirits” are sold every month in that state alone. The government plans to reduce taxes on these, so as to discourage people drinking hooch – which claimed hundreds of lives last month. So that 7.3 million cases should double soon.

Yet, it was only last night that I met Ahlabadi. We shared a few chillums and I noticed that his face was badly bruised. Turned out that he along with two of his mates killed a couple of bottles of this “country spirit” the night before. Ahlabadi probably fell off his cycle on the way home. But he doesn’t remember what exactly happened. Except the booze. And the wonder that he managed to open the lock on the door to his rooms.

And I was drinking beer. Smoking chillums. Driving home. Very slowly, of course.

And I recall my years in the villages of Bengal, where everyone drank toddy. Why not make toddy tax free? Why not do the same for beer? (That is, light beer.) Why not do the same for wine? Why not allow millions of micro-breweries to mushroom, selling cheap local draughts to all comers – just as roadside vendors sell tea today?

Alcohol poses a public health problem in India only because all government policies encourage hard liquor. Those who can afford better than country spirits invariably knock down a quarter of IMFL rum or whisky every evening. Beer drinking is discouraged by taxation. Ditto with wine.

Now that Young India has unitedly said “Cheers,” let us shift the debate to State policies on alcohol. Beer and wine, consumed daily, are good for you. Toddy, handia, chhung and apong are all healthy. A quart of IMFL is bad. Country spirits are much worse.

Gandhi is dead, folks.

Gandhianism must die too.

Cheers!