Patna: Responding to opposition allegations that continuing hooch tragedies in Bihar was proof of the failure of the state government’s stringent liquor ban, the JD(U) government strove to differentiate between the two issues in the state assembly Friday. The opposition has also accused the government of covering up the deaths.
“From 2008 to 2015 when there was no liquor ban in Bihar, there were 108 deaths due to consumption of spurious liquor… Deaths due to consumption of hooch has been taking place across India, in West Bengal, UP, Punjab and Assam, states where there are no liquor bans,” said Bijendra Prasad Yadav, JD(U) leader and minister in the Nitish Kumar cabinet, in response to opposition demands for a government statement on alleged hooch deaths in the state following last week’s Holi celebrations.
Rubbishing opposition claims that the hooch tragedies in Bihar were a result of liquor ban, which made people more vulnerable to spurious liquour, Yadav added, “Throughout the world there are laws against every crime. But there are inmates in jails in the UK and USA also.” The minister also stressed that his government would continue its anti-liquor drive.
The death of 43 people in Bihar, allegedly owing to consumption of spurious liquor, or hooch, following Holi — which was celebrated on 19 March in the state — had rocked the ongoing Bihar assembly session this week. On Wednesday the house had to be adjourned, after opposition members stormed into the well of the house, demanding the CM’s resignation and holding him accountable for the deaths.
Friday’s statement by the government was expected to be made by CM Nitish Kumar, but was presented by Yadav on his behalf as Kumar was in Lucknow to attend UP CM Yogi Adityanath’s swearing-in ceremony. The statement came in the midst of a debate on budgetary allocations for the home department.
Bihar’s liquor ban law, which came into effect in 2016, has come under criticism for its stringency in the past few months, after the state police raided over 50 marriage halls in search of illicit liquor, even storming into bridal rooms. The judiciary has also voiced repeated concerns over the load created on the justice delivery system due to burgeoning prohibition cases. The problem had even drawn the attention of the Chief Justice of India, N.V. Ramana. In December, 2021, at a seminar held in Vijayawada, Ramana had called the anti-liquor law a short-sighted decision of the Nitish Kumar government.
In January, the Nitish Kumar government proposed amendments to the state’s anti-liquor legislation to reduce the load on the legal system. The amendments are expected to be tabled in the assembly in the ongoing session.
On Friday, the government’s response to the latest hooch tragedies in Bihar left the Rashtriya Janata Dal members fuming. “The government’s answer is shallow. It did not reply why the deaths due to hooch consumption was suppressed. Even today the government is neither denying nor confirming the deaths in the hooch tragedy,” RJD Chief Whip Lalit Yadav told ThePrint.
Also read: Ask consumers to be informers, go after suppliers: Bihar’s new plan to implement prohibition
Deaths reported to be from disease
Between Holi on 19 March and 22 March, 42 deaths from alleged hooch consumption, were reported by the local media. The deaths were reported from the state’s Bhagalpur, Banka, Madhepura and Siwan districts.
In Bhagalpur, it was alleged that one person had died after consuming spurious liquor, which came in the bottle of a foreign liquor brand. “There were deaths even in my constituency in Vaishali. But the family was threatened by local police to remain silent (about the cause of death),” alleged RJD MLA Mukesh Roshan. He also claimed that in Madhepura the administration had not even conducted post mortems to ascertain the cause of deaths in some cases, which were alleged to have been caused by hooch consumption.
ThePrint has the copy of a report by Banka District Magistrate Suharsh Bhagat — 14 deaths from alleged hooch consumption were reported in Banka between 18 and 22 March — to the excise department, claiming that the families of the deceased had said that deaths occurred due to various diseases. All the bodies were cremated without postmortems.
A report by Bhagalpur DM Subrat Kumar Sen — where another 16 are alleged to have died of hooch consumption, attributes the death of a 34-year-old ‘victim’ to heart attack. “The reports fail to mention that all these deaths took place within a short period of 48 hours after Holi,” said a doctor here on condition of anonymity.
In a press conference on 22 March state excise commissioner B. Kartikey Dhanji had said allegations of death due to hooch consumption were still being investigated.
The state is no stranger to hooch tragedies. According to local media reports, Bihar has witnessed over 90 deaths from alleged hooch consumption in the past six months.
After the death of over 40 people in alleged hooch tragedies last November, CM Nitish Kumar had tightened the noose on liquor law offenders and introduced drone and chopper surveillance to monitor movement of liquor in the state.
“But hooch tragedies are still happening. Will CM Nitish Kumar seek army’s help to enforce the liquor laws?” taunted RJD national vice president Shivanand Tiawi.
The Bihar government, which gives Rs 2 lakh compensation to below poverty level families in cases of bereavement — where deaths have occurred due to natural calamity — offers no such help to families of victims of hooch tragedies. “Under the anti-liquor laws there is no provision for providing compensation (to families of hooch tragedy victims), since the person has committed a crime,” Excise and Prohibition Minister Sunil Kumar told ThePrint.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
Also read: ‘Change name to prohibition’ — Bihar teachers tell education department for liquor lookout letter