As soon as Lochkdavon 3 took place, Govt announced the opening of the liquor stores under the well planned strategic policy. and people all over the country thronged to the wine shop.No social distance, long ques, chaos at the liquor stores, all were telling a different story. It seemed as if India had found a corona vaccine. Is this the real character of India?
It is said here that the real character of a person, a society, a country is revealed only during a crisis. The question is whether our character as a nation has become the same as shown by the crowd outside liquor shops today. But it will be remembered that when India was fighting a war against the corona virus, the people of India were standing outside the liquor shops.
As of now if we watch news channels or read print media two issues are being discussed in the whole country. The first issue is alcohol and the second issue is the obscenity of students. Hashtags like liquor shops, boys locker room and girls locker room are trending. You must have seen that talk of coronavirus has reduced in the country.
Now nobody is talking about this epidemic. It seems that now we have included the coronavirus in our lives
There are three important indices of any country. The first is health, the second is prosperity and the third is the character of his society. It is disheartning to know that how India is failing repeatedly on these three parameters. 200 million people in India still sleep hungry every night, that is, India is still far behind in terms of prosperity. 16 crore people harm their health by drinking alcohol every day and crores of people are addicted to pornography every day. That is, India’s health, prosperity and character are under all three questions.
People are queuing up to take food in an area of Delhi. These are people who do not even have bread for two days to eat. Secondly, in this Delhi, people want to get a bottle of wine at any cost by putting a roadside line.
On the first day of relaxation in a lockdown period, ie. on 4th May and on the very first day the people of the country took off in front of liquor shops in miles-long lines and dismantled the rules. And all the laws related to social distancing were drunk after drinking alcohol.
But everyone was hopeful that people will get goodwill after getting this intoxication and at least today people will follow the rules. Sadly nothing like this happened. Despite increasing the prices of liquor by 70 per cent in Delhi, people continued to work in many kilometres long lines. These are the same people who create uproar even if the price of petrol and diesel increases by one rupee.
Such pictures have come from all the cities of the country where people did not care about rules and regulations. The only obsession on the heads of these people engaged in lines was to somehow get a few bottles of liquor.
The insistence on buying liquor in Nainital was overshadowed by the weather. With hailstorm, hail also started falling. But people did not agree to leave the line. That is, there is no decrease in the enthusiasm of alcoholics in any season, whether it is winter, summer, or rainy. No one can stop them from buying alcohol. Perhaps this is the real restraint and determination of the people of our country.
In another case, a person was showering flowers on people outside the liquor shops in Delhi. This person is giving flowers, saying that these people can make the country’s economy strong.
This is the real character of our country. When flowers are showered on warriors who fight against the coronavirus, the intellectuals of the country take a drink of expensive liquor and say that what was needed, this money could be spent elsewhere. These people also say that the country’s economy is not good.
Unemployment is increasing, the poor are not getting food. And the government is doing nothing. But the long lines for alcohol make these intellectuals feel proud and they think that this is real socialism.
When there was demonetisation in India in November 2016, the people of the country were engaged in similar lines. Many people were angry at the government, some people were calling it unnecessary. Some people engaged in the line had fainted, while some people had lost their lives. The media of this country made a lot of noise
But today, in the sweltering heat of May, when the whole country is queuing up to take liquor, no one is bothered. No one is getting a heat, nobody is worried. No one is going to die and no one is angry with the government. Rather, people are thanking the government.
This situation is when 2 lakh 60 thousand people die every year due to drinking alcohol. That is, every hour 29 people are killed in our country due to drinking alcohol. While the number of people who die every day from this is 712.
Currently, about 594 million litres of alcohol is sold on average every year in India. But by 2022, the consumption of alcohol will increase to 1 thousand 680 crore litres. At present, 2 thousand 376 swimming pools of Olympic size can be filled with the amount of liquor sold in India every year.
As we have told you about 16 crore people in India are addicted to drinking. Now, if the price of a bottle of liquor is considered to be 500 rupees on an average, then all these people drink an average of 8 thousand crore rupees.
In India, an average plate of food costs 30 rupees. If these 16 crore alcohol drinkers give the amount spent on alcohol to feed the poor, then about 4 and a half crore Indians can be fed with food for a month.
Now you think that intellectuals and designer journalists in our country start cursing the economy of the country by drinking expensive alcohol often in the evening. These people say that poverty is increasing in the country while drinking foreign liquor, which is available at cheap prices in the press club. The government should put more money in the accounts of the poor and give more subsidy. But these people never oppose alcohol.
We are not saying that you should not live life as you wish. You do what you like If you are fond of drinking alcohol, then you are also free to do so. But keep in mind that there is a difference between drinking alcohol and living for alcohol.
It is very difficult for the country to become a superpower where people want to get drunk and accept alcohol as their life.
It symbolizes the character of a nation, what its citizens were doing during the crisis. But when the country is in a big crisis, liquor is roaming in the minds of the people of the country. People are worried about alcohol more than the country. If people continue to gather in front of liquor shops in the same way, and if people continue to flout the rules of social distancing, then the austerity that the country has done so far by staying imprisoned for 40 days will have no meaning.
But it seems that only alcohol has become necessary for this country. Think if the country was fighting a real war at this time, would people still be engaged in the same lines of alcohol?
