The Jammu & Kashmir Government is once again in the thick of a controversy over it’s draft policy on fresh liquor licenses in Jammu & Kashmir as the Jammu wine traders association (JWTA) has rejected the new draft policy with the contention that e-auction has been proposed just to reduce their competition under the new liquor license policy. In a way the Jammu wine traders association has alleged that rich becoming the richer and poor the poorer is the intent of incumbent Jammu & Kashmir Government even in implementing the liquor license policy . Interestingly this time objections have not come from muslim clerics but from wine traders of Jammu. The Jammu wine traders association seeks continuation of the previous excise policy that was pursued by the governments in erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir state before the downgrading of the erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir state to a union territory on August 5,2019. Knowing that the liquor is banned in several BJP ruled states including Gujrat the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, the announcement of opening liquor shops across Jammu & Kashmir is questionable on many counts as the decision would by all standards of understandabilities boost social crimes particularly drug addiction and intensify critical ailments already ruining lives of youth in Jammu & Kashmir. While the government itself has shown it’s concerns over the unprecedented increase in the no of drug addicts in recent years, the people reserve the right to ask the government that would expansion and extension of liquor trade reduce or increase the intensifying crime of drug addiction and the spread of critical ailments caused by unprecedented increase in liquor consumption in Jammu and Kashmir? Shockingly the extension and expansion of liquor trade would by all standards of human understandabilities’ only boost the crime of drug addiction and intensify several critical ailments in Jammu & Kashmir.
Though the concerned stakeholders had in June last year urged the government to issue a formal order for banning the liquor trade from the finance department to address the fears and apprehensions of dissenting voices in Jammu & Kashmir, but it reduced it’s promise of suspending implementation of new liquor license policy only to a tweet from a top ranked bureaucrat. Ban on liquor trade in several other states including those ruled by the BJP does not leave any scope for any resistance from any political party if the ban on liquor is extended to Jammu & Kashmir also.
Before implementing the recently released draft policy for opening liquor shops in Jammu & Kashmir, the Government should have taken into view the decisions of the previous regimes and a broader consensus amongst all the mainstream political parties including the BJP and the traders of both Kashmir valley and Jammu region over issuance of new liquor licenses in Jammu & Kashmir. Unfortunately top bureaucrats wielding brute power in absence of a popular government in Jammu & Kashmir tend to impose provocative decisions over the people just to appease their political bosses in Delhi. The new draft policy for liquor licenses has not come in for sharp criticism and condemnation only because of the apprehensions of muslim clerics of Kashmir valley but also from Jammu wine traders association who allege that the implementation of new draft policy is designed to reduce their competition under new draft policy through e-auction and demand continuation of the previous liquor policy. Failing to attract non local investors in the industrial sector the government is now obviously tending to generate interest of non local investors in liquor trade through a controversial policy of e-auction. Knowing that the ban on liquor trade in several other states including those ruled by the BJP does not leave any scope for any resistance from any political party if the ban on liquor is extended to Jammu & Kashmir also, the government is trying to impose new draft policy for wrong reasons without taking on board the other stakeholders. Administrative wisdom demands that government issues an order to impose a blanket ban on issuing liquor licenses in any part of Jammu & Kashmir. Decision of opening liquor shops in any state or union territory known for it’s muslim majority character only shows that government is only trying to further the causes of religious provocations and not reconciliation which is the only basis for religious harmony. Though Government had rejected the reports about the decision of opening liquor shops in Jammu & Kashmir through a tweet from a top ranked bureaucrat in June last year, but with the release of draft policy for liquor licenses government has gone back on it’s yet another commitment like the one on property tax in a short span of about only nine months. Though the concerned stakeholders had in June last year urged the government to issue a formal order for banning the liquor trade from the finance department to address the fears and apprehensions of dissenting voices in Jammu & Kashmir, but it reduced it’s promise of suspending implementation of new liquor license policy only to a tweet from a top ranked bureaucrat. Ban on liquor trade in several other states including those ruled by the BJP does not leave any scope for any resistance from any political party if the ban on liquor is extended to Jammu & Kashmir also. Administrative wisdom demands that government issues an order to impose a blanket ban on issuing liquor licenses in any part of Jammu & Kashmir.
