In a potentially dangerous beginning of the Anna Hazare effect, a drunkard in Bihar was on Sunday beaten up in public by scores of people who said they were following the Gandhian social activist’s preferred method for ending the drinking scourge.
Phoolchand, reportedly a habitual drinker, was surrounded by about 80 people, including some of his neighbours, and beaten up in the eastern district of Katihar. He suffered minor injuries and was quickly taken away for treatment by his family. Although Phoolchand was beaten up while shouting his angst against the Nitish Kumar-led government’s education policies, the thrashing apparently had no political link.
“We used the methods of Anna Hazare. He (Phoolchand) did not stop drinking even after we warned him. Today he shouted in a drunken condition,” said Manoj Kumar, one of the men who slapped and kicked Phoolchand. “Anna Hazare’s method of ending people’s drinking habit is a good one,” he added, cheerfully supported by others who had lent a hand or two in beating up hapless Phoolchand.
Ironically, the incident took place a day after chief minister Nitish Kumar spoke of the need for prohibition in Bihar, where his government’s liberalisation of the liquor policies has led to a more than quadrupling of the excise revenues in the past six years — from `319 crore in 2005-06 to `1,542 crore in 2010-11. After commercial taxes, liquor sales have been Bihar’s second biggest revenue earner. Mr Kumar said a part of the earnings from liquor sales would be used to create and promote an atmosphere for prohibition, but social activists worried about the Katihar example ostensibly inspired by Mr Hazare’s controversial method.