People's Democracy

IF anything, the court verdict in the Kalluvathukkal-Pallippuram hooch tragedy in Kerala has sent the message that all the society’s morals are not yet lost. The tragedy took place in October 2000. 

The court found 26 out of the 36 accused in the case clearly guilty; the other 10 were exonerated with the benefit of doubt. Many of the guilty have been convicted for murder, abetment to murder and other serious charges.

The case has been unprecedented in many respects. There were hooch cases earlier too, but this case was peculiar because the court has found that the case involved a conspiracy to kill people. This raises questions like why this conspiracy was hatched and who were the masterminds behind it.

An answer is to be found in the fact that the Left Democratic Front (LDF) was about to complete its five-year term in office and face an election. A hooch tragedy at that juncture was certain to affect the LDF’s prospects in the ensuing election. And it happened according to the script. Those who were in search of a stick, got an iron rod to beat the LDF with.

Naturally, the people expected the government to promptly take stern steps to book the culprits and stop the recurrence of such tragedies, irrespective of whatever risk it involved. And the LDF did not fail the people. But its opponents did fish in the troubled waters and also helped the big fish escape the strong net the inquiry had spread around them. Except a few, those in the media sang the UDF’s glory and created stories to malign LDF leaders. All their stories had just one theme: the CPI(M) and its allies had illicit connections with the liquor barons who the court has now found guilty. The then chief minister's family and the members of his staff were subjected to false charges and unbearable mental agony. Even police officers were not spared; some of them were dubbed as the CPI(M)’s stooges. The inquiry officers had had to confront an inimical array of colleagues in the police and excise departments. 

But the LDF did not relent. It wanted to prove that it was a force the liquor mafia could not intimidate. Without bothering in the least about the outcome, about the temporary unpopularity because of media concoctions, the LDF relentlessly went on to chase the culprits and bring them to the dock. Its unreserved political backing helped the police and inquiry officers vigorously pursue their probes and book the culprits. The head of the probe team, Sibi Mathew, categorically denied any political interference in his job. At the same time, interestingly, he revealed the attempted interference in the inquiry on part of the excise and police officers who wanted to save their bosses from whom they got lakhs.

The LDF government also took measures to stop the recurrence of such tragedies. It required strong will power to take measures to stop any more hooch tragedies and save hundreds from being killed in cold blood for the sake of filthy lucre. Showing such will power, the LDF government adopted a new liquor policy to fully eliminate the private sector from the business. The government fully took over the foreign liquor business, while the toddy business was handed over to the workers’ cooperatives. The liquor mafia found that it was a blow to their spine, and danced in full fury during the final days of the LDF government’s tenure. They made noises, spread canards, opened their coffers wide for the UDF that promised to bring these hated forces back to the liquor business, and misused caste and religion to defeat the LDF in the election. And the LDF lost.

However, as for the liquor policy the UDF has evolved, any unbiased analyst would say it is pro-mafia, anti-people, anti-state. It has given back toddy shops to the mafia bosses whose men are running most of the shops benami. Workers’ cooperatives have all been dissolved into thin air. Illicit spirit is again flowing into the state. Liquor shops are giving their customers second rate products, without their knowledge. Can one even imagine of a government supplying its people adulterated or duplicate liquor? But, take it from us, this is precisely what the UDF government is doing.