The Marxist-led Left Democratic Front government of Pinarayi Vijayan in Kerala was bold enough to reverse the populist policy pursued by the Congress-led United Democratic Front government of Oommen Chandy which catered to the upper strata of society by decreeing that only five star hotels could have bars.

The poor were forced to queue up before the liquor shops, which were few and far apart, for hours on end to fetch their hooch. Often a person had to take a day’s casual leave to buy a bottle.

The policy not only encouraged bootlegging but promoted corruption among the enforcement authorities. The most troubling aspect was that youth resorted to drugs.

The flourishing tourism industry which attracted 12.5 million domestic and about a million foreign tourists in 2016 witnessed a steep fall after the stringent policy came into effect. With the LDF government’s liberalised policy coming into force from 1 July, Vijayan hopes to reverse the trend. With more than Rs.1 trillion in remittances from its emigrants annually, conspicuous consumption has become the hallmark of Kerala society and people resent the moralistic attitude of the government.

To claim that “prohibition of consumption of intoxicating drinks” is the most important Directive Principle of State Policy did not cut much ice with Vijayan as it is only a small part of Article 47 of the Constitution. Raising the level of nutrition and the standard of living of people and improvement of public health are given priority over prohibition in the same Article.

Fifteen Articles of the Constitution deal with Directive Principles. Why are our leaders concerned with only one-third of Article 47 while observing the rest in the breach unless they think it is one way of wooing votes, especially of the fair sex? History shows prohibition has never succeeded anywhere in the world, including the Biblical Garden of Eden. There is a growing tendency among our political class to assume a paternalistic attitude to governance and prescribe what the people should eat and drink.

A truly democratic government should empower the citizen to make their own decisions. The Volstead Act, 1920, sought to enforce prohibition in the USA which led to the rise of the mafia and manufacture, sale and consumption of illicit liquor. It had to be repealed.

Several States in India, including Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, introduced total prohibition and repealed it quickly because it created more problems than promoting temperance.

The claim that once prohibition was enforced wage earners would give their earnings to their families was found to be false. They spend more money and time on chasing illicit liquor prepared clandestinely in unhygienic conditions.

During the prohibition era in the USA wine merchants would sell bricks of grape concentrate with a warning message, “After dissolving the brick in a gallon of water, do not put the liquid away in a jug for 20 days, because it would then turn into wine.”

Such is the ingenuity of man to beat prohibition.