Is corruption a bigger issue then alcoholism ?

Here I am re posting my facebook note which I wrote on November 23, 2011

Jasvant Singh November 23,2011

Today people who used to says that Anna Hazare is above parliament are saying that Anna Hazare is suffering from Schizophrenia and need to be treated in a Mental Asylum. What have happened? What have changed? Why media people changed their mind so suddenly?

The reason is that Anna Hazare support government to stop sale and consumption of alcohol in India in a very strong way. He want this to even stronger then Lokpal Bill. He has his own ideas about how alcoholism can be stopped. His views on alcoholism are very similar to his view about corruption. Why are people supporting his views on corruption and opposing his views on alcoholism? Is this because Ford Foundation is funding his views on corruption but is against his views on alcoholism?

Let us analyses the issues and their impact in details.

It is said that corruption is bigger issue because it is leading to slowdown in our growth rate by 1.5%. If that is the case then why are ignoring issue of alcoholism which is slowing down our growth rate by 2% ? I will explain how I reached at figure of 2% later on.

My question is why people are interested in one issue and ignoring all other issues. People are just being carried away by media to believe in whatever they want people to believe. Media is controlled by big money, most of channels and newspapers are run by Multinational companies. People with big money want to have Lokpal appointed by NGO running on foreign fund to be above parliament and don't want to stop alcoholism. That is way people who speak against alcoholism are fools (Schizophrenic to be precise).

Let us now compare gravity of problem of corruption and alcoholism, what national loss both of them are leading to, their scale and impact on national growth.

Let us take alcoholism first. We need to take into total money which is spent on alcohol in India into account. Is this figure larger than money paid in bribes in India?

Yes it is larger than money paid in bribes.

How many times is money spent on alcohol is of money given as bribes in India?

It it at least 4-5 time of the money given as bribes in India.

If it is true then how come alcoholism is a second issue to corruption?

It is said that corruption is bigger issue because people have to pay bribe out of their hard earned money and because of that people can't spend money on their real needs like food, shelter and education of children.

Is real need of people drinking alcohol taken care of by liquor companies? Why are we are not bothered about people who have to live without food, shelter or education because their father, husband or brother is addicted to alcohol?

Again it is said that people should take care of themselves and government have no responsibility of getting people out of addiction. Here I would like to talk about government action regarding Firecrackers in big cities. Government have banned sale of Firecrackers in whole city except from designated areas. Shopkeepers are given license to sale only limited stock and only for limited period. Government plan to bring down number of Firecracker's licenses and amount of Firecrackers sold in city every year.

Why is government not leaving it to peoples discretion what Firecrackers to burn and how many to burn and when to burn? Why is government trying to curb firecracker industry?  Answer is that government is doing it for welfare of people. Why same theory does not apply to alcoholism?

Regarding alcoholism government have taken a altogether opposite stand. If government find a village with no liquor shop it gives a license to open a liquor shop in that village by take 10 Lakhs as license fee and 20 Lakhs as bribe. After this villagers start demonstrating against liquor shop. Police comes into action and some 50 people are detained by police and beaten up in police Thana. No human right activist comes forward to speak against that because some 10 Lakhs are paid to police and 10 Lakhs to media and human right activists.

To keep law an order in village a PCR van is placed permanently at liquor shop to protect owner and consumer of liquor. Such sincerity police never show when people demand police patrolling in a specific area because of increasing crimes. This PCR van is there on expanse of tax payer’s money.

Government is planning to increase number of liquor shops and number of bottles sold every year. Liquor is reducing physical and mental health of people. People who consume alcohol are not able to study or work to their actual ability for some time. Many people dies because of accident resulting because of liquor if we consider loss of GDP which occurred due to their death then loss will be much higher.

50% of corruption and bribes paid in India is by liquor companies and liquor shop owner to keep running liquor business and robe people of India. If we ban liquor in India then 50% of corruption will vanish without even implementing Lokpal. I am with Anna Hazare on this although Team Anna does not agree.