Ashlon Anjelo
Fernandes
For some reason, the Supreme Court and the Centre feel that its citizens should no more have fun or lead a good, happy life. Recently, they came up with what they call the “anti-romeo squads” to act against violence against women. But what if I tell you that, these squads find even the simplest of conversation between people of opposite sexes, inappropriate and uncalled for, and publicly insult and beat up men for no fault of theirs? So much so that men now shy away from even talking to women now in public, even if she has to be her family member! Violence against women should, in no way, be tolerated and stringent action should be taken against anyone trying to abuse women, but that doesn’t mean that their freedom is curtailed to such an extent that they can no longer talk or be in the presence of the people of the opposite sex in public with full consent from both sides.
If that was not enough, to make our lives more miserable, the Supreme Court passed an order recently which basically bans all liquor vends within 500m of national and state highways. Almost 3 weeks after that order and I still can’t figure out any single reason how this is going to help us in any way. Overnight, it has rendered thousands of businesses unviable, and will make lakhs of people lose their jobs. Unfortunately, this is also at a time when the world has actually started to look at India as a viable, business-friendly country where the law will protect their businesses and investments. On one side, we are promoting the “make in India” initiative and on the other side we are changing rules, overnight, without giving a single thought to how it will impact our economy and state revenues. Its no secret that states rely heavily on tax revenues from alcohol, which in turn is used for the development of sectors like education and Healthcare.
It would be foolish of anyone to think that people will actually stop drinking just because now, it will be a little more difficult to get it. Those who want alcohol will find a way to get it. Thus, it encourages an illegal economy to crop out. Prohibition or even restricted sales, has failed worldwide. It only encourages bribes, corruption and under-the-counter dhabas on the highways selling alcohol. The funny part is, this 500m rule will not achieve its desired goal-which is to stop people from drinking and driving on roads. If I want alcohol, now it shouldn’t take me more than 3 minutes to take a 500m detour to get my fix of alcohol for the road.
The liquor shop owners in Goa at least are much more fortunate than the ones in densely populated cities like Mumbai, Pune and Delhi where more than 90% of the vendors had to shut shop as the no. of highways in these cities easily outnumber the ones here. It harms tourism, local economy, revenue collections, employment prospects for those directly involved and doesn’t reduce drunk drivers on the road. Pretty pointless, isn’t it?
The only way to keep the drunk drivers off the road are heavy penalties and punishments to offenders and a strong campaign highlighting how dangerous it is to drink and drive. This is what is done all over the world and this is what the concerned authorities should try and do. Rules of this type create chaos and damage the economy, while offenders can easily adjust to the new arbitrariness. World leaders, Global CEOs and achievers in every field occasionally have a beer or two in the presence of media and still function pretty well. To think of alcohol as a sin because some abuse it, is incorrect, at least so far as modern world practices go.
If India aspires to be one of the developed, civilized and modern countries of the world, can we adopt and adhere to some global practices? Alcohol is not restricted at all in many countries, and yet they have managed to reduce drunk driving to a large extent. It is time India grew up and came close to a global standard. Drunk driving is a serious offense. Alcohol use should be moderate. While laws should exist to curb drunk driving, they should be sensible and drafted in a manner that solves the problem.
Which brings us to the million dollar question, “how much is too much?”. How many more such blanket bans and restrictions before we realize that, we as a country, are drifting away from the country that we should ideally be becoming?
In general, laws should not be arbitrary and pointless, written so hastily that someone might suspect lawmakers are under the influence.
(Final year student of Padre Conceicao College of Engineering,Verna)
