“Tolerated trade is killing the poor”

Even though this Indian state has officially adopted the alcohol prohibition policy, officials and police forces pretend not to see the trade in locally produced liquor by local mafias. Fr. Louis Prakash: “They get protection thanks to corruption, which spreads death among the poor.”

Siwan () – At least 20 people have died in Siwan, Bihar, due to the consumption of illegally produced liquor. Chapra Superintendent of Police Kumar Ashish announced the formation of a special investigation team that has arrested three people, while five others are being investigated at large.

The issue is also fueling a political standoff in Bihar: the Rashtriya Janata Dal, a local party, is attacking Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, linked to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalists, asking how this liquor is available. since in this Indian State a ban on the sale of alcohol is in force. The party accuses the local government of responsibility for the deaths of people, alleging that the liquor mafias enjoy the “protection” of the authorities.

“Every year, during Holi and Diwali, people die due to illegal liquor,” accuses RJD leader Mrityunjay Tiwari, “the liquor mafias have the protection of the Government, which does not really care about this.” problem”.

By April 2023, another 26 people had died in an alcohol-related tragedy in Motihari, a town in East Champaran district, also in Bihar: in 2022, as many as 73 people had died in Saran district from illegally manufactured foreign liquor in India.

“These repeated liquor-related tragedies in Bihar aggravate the suffering of the poor and marginalized,” says Father Louis Prakash, head of the Jesuit Migration Service in Patna. »Despite the prohibition, liquor is freely available, everyone drinks these spurious alcohols that are manufactured in oil drums, dirty pipes, drums in non-existent hygienic conditions. The producers receive protection because they grease the hands of powerful local thugs and law enforcement, who look away while they sell these poisons. Corruption and collusion cost the lives of the poor…