Gandhi, the father of our nation, was strongly against the selling and drinking of liquors. He used to say, it is criminal to spend the income from the sale of intoxicants on the education of the nation’s children or other public services. The government must overcome the temptation of using such revenue for nation-building purposes.
India has come a long way ahead of the state of 1930s or 40s. The poverty level and situation have changed. In 30s, people in the state of unemployment and poverty used to spend their spare time in drinking, even if they had no money. The result was families destroyed due to head of the family being indulged in drinking habit. Violence caused by drinking problem was a common thing at that time. That’s why; Mr. Gandhi had to address the nation about drinking practice.
As Gandhi should be our ideal and our nation should reflect to follow his principles. After independence India should had to abolish the selling of liquor. But no, India is still generating revenues from liquor. Now, the thing is whether drinking liquor is actually bad habit or it was the situation which demands Mr. Gandhi to be against liquor.
According to the NIAAA – National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, it concluded, after much scientific reviews that moderate drinkers do have lowest death rate compare to heavy drinkers and some fellows who don’t drink. In another word, if you take liquor as a drug and take in a controlled fashion; it is good for your health and longevity. So, being strictly against the liquor or drinking habit is quick or biased judgement. Excess of anything is not good. So is the case with liquor too.
Human beings have a general tendency or affinity for intoxication. The form may be different but everyone loves to do it. When someone gets bored of their hard social life, they turn to things which can let them forget everything for some time. Either it is in the form of drinking, gaming, chatting, swimming or playing badminton after work. The motto is only one, to forget everything for some moment. It just depends on them which form attracts them. But, in the present world everyone is trying to get refreshed by one of such forms.
One may say that there are people who turn violent after drinking. But, overdose of every drugs have side-effects. Even overdose of sleeping pills. But then again, to avoid such cases there should be strict guidelines for over drinking. Also, a lot of accidents occur every year due to an alcoholic driver. Nevertheless, still it’s a case of over drinking.
Therefore, stopping the sale of liquor is not a solution. It is true that we live in a Gandhian state. But, it does not mean we should stop applying things which were true in his period. Selling liquor in a Gandhian state is not an anomaly at all.
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