Row over Liquor in Kashmir

Hostile measures are obviously on top of the agenda of the government in Jammu & Kashmir more so after the downgrading the erstwhile state to a union territory and the withdrawal of special status on August 5 last year. Attempt to settle scores over the hostile measures in Jammu & Kashmir has though drawn a flak not once but several times during last nine months of direct central rule in Jammu & Kashmir, but the policy of imposing hostile measures on willing populations in Jammu & Kashmir does not head to any dead end. Knowing that the liquor is banned in several BJP ruled states including Gujrat the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister of 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 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? Shockingly the extension and expansion of liquor trade would by all standards of human understandabilities’ only boost the crime of drug addiction in Jammu & Kashmir. Before pushing through a proposal 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 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.
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.
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. Government rejecting the reports about the decision of opening liquor shops through a simple tweet from a top ranked bureaucrat is by no means satisfying for the angered muslim majority populations in Jammu & Kashmir but only a formal order for banning the liquor trade from the finance department would address the fears and apprehensions of dissenting voices in Jammu & Kashmir. 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.