Thiruvananthapuram, June 27 (IANS) The CPI-M’s long-held claim that it pursued a policy of reducing liquor consumption through regulation rather than prohibition has come under renewed scrutiny, with official documents and administrative decisions from the previous LDF-led Kerala government painting a sharply different picture of its decade in power in the state.

Fresh disclosures relating to the grant of bar licenses and the entry of multinational liquor giant Bacardi into Kerala’s low-alcohol beverage market have once again brought the previous decade-long Pinarayi Vijayan government’s liquor policy under the spotlight.

Together, they have revived allegations that the Left’s public stance on liquor often stood in contrast to the decisions it took while in office.

The latest controversy centres on two key decisions.

The first is the grant of 22 new bar licenses during the 72 days immediately preceding the recent Assembly elections (April 9) with approvals continuing until the eve of the Model Code of Conduct.

The second relates to policy changes that allegedly opened Kerala’s market to Bacardi’s ready-to-drink low-alcohol products, even as the state government projected the move as an initiative to help fruit farmers.

Official policy documents indicate that the provision permitting wine production from agricultural produce and the clause allowing the sale of low-alcohol beverages were separate measures.

However, the Congress alleges that the two were deliberately presented as a single farmer-centric initiative, creating the impression that the policy would generate demand for locally grown fruits.

Files relating to the tenure of then Excise Minister M.V. Govindan, now the State CPI-M Secretary, reportedly justify the move not on grounds of supporting farmers but on the argument that encouraging beverages with around 20 per cent alcohol content instead of conventional 42 per cent liquor would help moderate alcohol consumption.

Documents also suggest that Bacardi had been lobbying successive LDF governments since 2017 for regulatory changes, with the company allegedly making representations directly to Excise Ministers before favourable departmental studies were initiated.

The disclosures have inevitably revived comparisons with the CPI-M’s position during the UDF government’s controversial liquor policy under the then Chief Minister Oommen Chandy.

At the time, the Left strongly criticised the UDF even as it said that prohibition was impractical and that the objective should instead be the scientific regulation of alcohol consumption.

Yet the numbers tell a different story.

When the UDF demitted office in 2016, Kerala had around 29 functioning bars following restrictions introduced by the Oommen Chandy-led government.

By the time the LDF completed two consecutive terms, that figure had crossed 900 after bar licenses were extended to hundreds of three-star and four-star hotels.

The previous LDF government also extended bar operating hours from 11 p.m. to midnight and approved 22 fresh licenses in the weeks ahead of the recent Assembly polls.

Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan recently cited these figures in the Kerala Assembly to accuse the CPI-M of abandoning the very principles it had once espoused.

The Congress is now compiling documents to seek a Vigilance probe into the grant of bar licenses and the policy decisions surrounding low-alcohol beverages, while the CPI-M has rejected the allegations, insisting that its liquor policy was guided by public interest.

As the political battle intensifies, the debate is increasingly centered not merely on individual decisions but on what critics describe as the contradiction between the Left’s public advocacy of controlled liquor consumption and the expansive liquor policy pursued during its decade in office.

–IANS

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