Prohibition will result in hooch deaths: Yechury

KOCHI: Calling the UDF government's liquor policy a failure, CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury said the LDF government will form a “strong liquor policy that will focus on reducing the influence of liquor drastically“.
"The CPM is for a strong liquor policy that will focus on curtailing the influence of liquor, particularly in Kerala. It's not that we are not for prohibition.Wherever prohibition has been imposed, we saw large number of deaths due to illicit liquor. Take the case of Gujarat, where the highest number of illicit liquor deaths happened. At the same time, nothing that has contributed to reduction of liquor consumption in the past, will be reversed," Yechury said at the meet-the-press programme organized by the Ernakulam Press Club here on Saturday .
Ridiculing the UDF government's liquor policy , Yechury asked whether any bars have actually been closed down in the state. "Can anyone show a bar that has been closed following the UDF government liquor policy? That question whether LDF will open bars or not, is like asking have you stopped beating your wife.If you say yes, then it means you were beating her earlier. And if you say no, then you are continuing to beat her," he said, adding that Kerala is now a state where new five-star hotels are mushrooming.
Asked about the the CPM's alliance with Congress in West Bengal, Yechury said the party's tie-up is not with the Congress alone.
"In West Bengal, there's an extra ordinary situation due to the politics of terror, intimidation and violence by the Mamata government.There's a big upsurge amongst the people for restoration of democracy and civilian rule.Joining the Left Front is not only the Congress Party , but Janata Dal (United), Rashtriya Janata Dal, Nationalist Congress Party , Janata Dal ( Secular) and many other groups, including civil society movements. Apart from that there's no discussion between the leaders of the Congress and the CPM. There's been no understanding in terms of joint programme, joint action or alliance or nothing of that sort," he clarified.
"If the argument that the CPM got a taste of its own medicine in West Bengal is correct, then Trinamool government would have never come in power in Bengal. Mamata would never have been the chief minister, if we did what she's doing now," he added.
The basic objective of the party is to oust the UDF and establish the LDF government in Kerala, he said. "BJP has to be politically defeated. Otherwise India cannot survive," Yechury said.
Swamy Vivekananda once called Kerala the madhouse of caste, he said. "Kerala has grown to a society with highest human development index in the country on par with many western countries. Now, that process cannot be allowed to be regressed," he said.
Yechury also alleged match-fixing between the UDF and BJP in many constituencies.Asked whether it will yield any result, he quipped: "I don't know. Sreesanth is their candidate; match-fixing candidates are all with them".