Southern States - Kerala

Sudheeran's stand pricks many a conscience

By Ramavarman T

THRISSUR APRIL 8. The principled attack by V.M. Sudheeran, MP, against the recently announced abkary policy of the State Government has not only pricked the conscience of the Congress and the UDF, but of the Opposition, trade union leaders and even the prohibitionists, particularly the Church-based outfits, as well.

The Congress leadership is obviously embarrassed by the attack and so far it has not been able to come up with any credible explanation for the criticisms that Mr. Sudheeran has raised against the policy, which has made a serious dent even in the image of the Chief Minister, A.K. Antony, as a pro-prohibition idealist. All that the leadership has been able to do so far is to raise the issue of party discipline which has been received by many only as a joke coming as it does from the leaders who have made it to the top through their systematic violation of party discipline. It is pointed out that the issue raised by Mr. Sudheeran is much more grave than something that can be dealt with through disciplinary measures because it concerns the basic commitment of the party for prohibition.

With the attack of Mr. Sudheeran it has become clear that the new abkary policy is one aimed at bringing back the period of the free reign of abkary contractors in the toddy sector. The policy will certainly tighten the grip of the powerful liquor lobby on the body polity of the State, according to a section of the prohibitionists. In fact, the entire political establishment of the State appeared to be happy deep inside with the policy, because all of them have some obligation or the other to the well-entrenched liquor lobby in the State. And barring some token statements even the LDF had not called for any direct action against the liquor policy. There are reports that some sections in the CPI(M) consider that the decision of the previous LDF Government to hand over the liquor shops to cooperative societies had been detrimental to the Front's performance in the last election. These sections obviously feel relieved that Mr. Antony, who had earned much credit through his earlier ban on arrack, has chosen to take it up on himself the burden of returning the toddy shops to the abkary contractors. But with the scathing attack of Mr. Sudheeran against the abkary policy, the Opposition also will now have to take more strident postures against it, unless they want to get exposed on their commitment against the liquor lobby.

The trade union leaders in the toddy sector are also internally relieved with the announcement of the new policy because they know that their service conditions will be better off if the shops are under the management of the contractors.

The workers also know that the contractors will be able to reap very high profits from the shops by mixing toddy with spirit and they can hope that naturally a portion of this illegal profit will trickle down to them. Even the AITUC leaders who were earlier piloting the concept of toddy cooperative societies now say that their main plank in the coming workers' agitation against the liquor policy will be rehabilitation of the workers who will be rendered jobless because of the closure of nearly 2,000 toddy shops this year. The other question of returning the toddy shops to the cooperative societies can be taken up when there is a change of Government in the State, according to the AITUC leaders.

Interestingly, even after the statement of Mr. Sudheeran attacking the toddy policy, the trade union leaders have not made any move against the decision of the Government to return the toddy shops from the societies back to the unscrupulous contractors.

The prohibitionists, particularly the Church-based groups, had toned down their protests against the toddy policy after the Government had made a final decision. They had been taking very strident postures when the KPCC and the UDF had approved such a policy late last year and early this year.

The position that the Church-based groups are now taking is that they will wait and watch for an year the manner of implementation of the policy.

Many of the prohibitionists are unable to swallow this change of stand of the Church-based groups because the policy announced by the Government is not much different from the one approved earlier by the KPCC and UDF.

Some of the prohibitionists allege that the Church leaders have been brought over by the UDF leadership though some cleverly-crafted offers. But there are others who point out that the dedicated leaders such as Bishop Susapakiam cannot be brought over so easily.

This section feels that the Church leadership might be under confusion without being able to see through the game plans of the Congress and UDF top brass.

But the statement of Mr. Sudheeran has come in as a clear aid for sifting through the designs of the liquor lobby and there are reports that there is pressure from within the Church groups to resume their campaign against the UDF's liquor policy.

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