By Salman Sultan
Many call him Mahatma though he himself lived a simple life and preached austerity. He even shed his upper garment and went in just loin clothes when he saw the utter poverty around and noticed fellow citizens sparsely clothed. Winston Churchill ridiculed and called him “half naked Fakir”. His full name was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi but out of reverence he is referred as Gandhi ji. He had two weapons: Truth and non-violence and with these two weapons he stood up against the mightiest empire of its time, namely The British. I, personally admire Gandhi ji’s tremendous will power. While travelling in first class in South Africa, he was thrown out of the train along with his baggage in spite of his argument about having a valid first class ticket. He never had imagined the treatment meted out to coloured people at that time in South Africa and he was not aware of the ground reality that coloured people were not allowed first class travel. However, sitting on the lonely platform Gandhi ji resolved to avenge his humiliation and teach a lesson to the British. Rest as they is history.
In his public interactions Gandhi ji realized the menace of alcohol, in particular, (illicit) country liquor. He became aware of the sufferings of a poor family, specially the women folk, due to family bread-winner’s addiction to alcohol. He had been witness to the ill effect of alcohol and therefore, he was for prohibition. On 2nd October, he is meticulously remembered in well organized functions where political leaders, executives, teachers etc eulogize his principles and sing “Hosannah” to his personality. All this love for Gandhi and his principles is just restricted to a day only and after that he is given a parting kick. Do I hear someone telling ‘it’s not true’. Well! Then explain as to why you see more liquor than tea shops while travelling through country side. You have to be apparently blind not to notice mushrooming road side signs like ‘Theka Desi Sharab’(country liquor shop). Why government is not opting for prohibition in the footsteps of Gandhi ji? As a matter of fact, government covertly encourages consumption of alcohol keeping in view the revenue generation through enhanced sale of liquour. One really has to witness convoy of red beacon vehicles at the auction of liquor permits. Our celebrities inclusive of sportsperson endorsing liquor advertisement contrast with what our country’s ‘Pradhan Sevak’ has to say about specially organized one day Yoga event, that it (Yoga) is a health assurance at zero cost. Mr. Nitish Kumar is right in putting up the challenge for prohibition as of paramount importance is the diet. Government has unscrupulously encouraged sale of liquour through advertisements and hoardings but is hardly concerned about providing nutritious diet to our children.
While 38.3% of world population consumes alcohol regularly, in our country 30% consume alcohol regularly and 11% are moderate to heavy drinkers. Shockingly, while the average Indian consumes 4.3 litres of alcohol per year, average rural Indian consumes 11.4 litres of alcohol. While for beer, wine and imported liquour per capita per week consumption is around 300 ml maximum for some state, consumption of Toddy and country liquour per capita per week even exceeds one litre for some state (http://www.mapsofindia.com/my-india/india/alcohol-consumption-in-india).
One is not in denial of the benefits of Yoga and meditation because as Muslims we practice most of the poses of Yoga five times a day in our daily prayers. Ablution prior to prayers which involves cleaning of extremities like hands, feet, face etc, in particular cleaning of nose with water drainage has many health benefits and one is free to practice and experience the beneficial effect. However, it is never prudent to compel people to follow this practice or make a lot of hype without at the same time emphasizing the importance of a balanced diet. In this age of sky rocketing prices for simple vegetable source like pulses (even tomatoes have touched Rs. 100 mark), it is difficult to meet two ends meet what to talk of three times a day nutritional diets.
Earlier governments were having no compunction in carrying out lottery ticket sales though a lot of people got ruined due to their addiction. Ultimately, good sense prevailed and now I don’t see sales of lottery tickets. Lotteries like liquor were also good revenue source. Hence government must discourage sale of liquor and just like tobacco associate warnings to its sale. Misleading advertisements by celebrities (for liquor) must also be stopped forthwith in order to have a healthy nation.