Eye on Pasi vote, Tejashwi, Chirag bat for toddy exemption from liquor, corner Nitish

Indian Express

30-04-2025

When Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) supremo Nitish Kumar was considering a liquor ban in the state in early 2016, he had faced resistance from his then senior Mahagathbandhan partner, the Lalu Prasad-led RJD.
According to RJD sources, one of the reasons for the party's stance against prohibition was that several liquor traders then were from the Yadav community, its core base. However, the RJD had to give in due to Nitish's strong insistence and the point that the CM had got massive women support for his prohibition proposal.
Yet, the RJD tried to impress upon Nitish the need to exclude toddy from the ambit of prohibition, sources said. But Nitish, who had led the Mahagathbandhan to a landslide win just a few months back in the October-November 2015 Assembly polls was unrelenting in his push for a total liquor ban in the state.
Bihar saw complete prohibition since the enforcement of the Bihar Prohibition and Excise Act in April 2016.
Last Sunday, addressing a gathering of the Pasi community (Scheduled Caste) in Patna, RJD leader and Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Assembly, Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, highlighted the RJD's opposition to inclusion of toddy in the 2016 prohibition law. 'I (as the then Deputy CM in the Mahagathbandhan government) had tried hard to convince Nitish Kumar to keep toddy out of the liquor category as the Pasi community had been extracting toddy from the palm and date trees for generations as their traditional occupation. But the CM did not listen,' he said.
Tejashwi then reiterated that 'If the Mahagathbandhan is voted to power in the Assembly polls (slated for October-November 2025), we will exclude toddy from the prohibition law'.
At the Pasi event, Tejashwi also announced that toddy would be given the industry status in the state. During his tenure as the CM in the 1990s, Lalu had waived off tax from toddy.
The Pasi community accounts for about 1% of Bihar's population. They are the fifth largest group among the SCs which make up 19.65% of the population. As per an estimate, about 5 lakh Pasis had been earning their livelihood by selling toddy before the imposition of prohibition in the state.
While Tejashwi has been trying to expand the RJD's base beyond the party's traditional M-Y (Muslim-Yadav) supporters, his repeated pitch for exclusion of toddy from the prohibition regime has been seen in political circles as 'a signal to lift liquor ban in a phased-manner in the event of the Mahagathbandhan's return to power'.
Tejashwi has often underlined the 'failures' of the prohibition policy by citing the continuing seizure of liquor, mounting cases and overcrowding of jails with most undertrials held in minor cases belonging to the underprivileged and vulnerable sections. Since April 2016, the state has seen over 350 hooch deaths and 9.36 lakh prohibition-related cases involving 14.32 lakh arrests till March 31, 2025.
The RJD's key ally Congress supported Tejashwi's stand on the toddy issue. Bihar Congress spokesperson Gyan Ranjan Gupta said: 'Pasi community takes immense risks in extracting toddy by climbing tall trees. By bringing toddy under prohibition, Nitish Kumar removed Pasis from their traditional occupation. A review should be done to restore the community's livelihood and its rightful claims on the toddy sale.'
The JD (U) accused the RJD of doing a 'U-turn' on the issue and dared it to seek the views of women voters. JD (U) chief spokesperson and MLC Neeraj Kumar said: 'The RJD's constitution clearly says that only one abstaining from narcotic and psychotropic substances can become its member. In fact, RJD used to get financial support from liquor traders before 2016. I also dare RJD to get signatures from random women voters on excluding toddy from prohibition. As for our government, it has supported over two lakh Pasis by giving them Rs 2 lakh assistance each to raise goats and take up other professions.'
The JD(U)'s senior ally BJP also hit out at Tejashwi over the row. BJP spokesperson Manoj Kumar Sharma said: 'Prohibition law was passed by the Bihar Legislature with a voice vote. RJD, which was the single largest party after the 2015 polls, supported total prohibition. What had stopped RJD from sending a team to the fields for a survey on the good or bad impact of toddy's inclusion in the liquor category? They are trying to make it a plank for the Pasi vote. But it would boomerang on them'.
However, another NDA ally Chirag Paswan, the Union Minister and LJP (Ram Vilas) president, said that toddy is a 'natural product', holding that it must not be categorised as liquor in the state. 'I have said many times that as an NDA partner, my party may be supporting the government in the state, but it is not part of the regime here. I certainly believe that toddy, a natural product, must not be considered liquor,' Chirag told reporters while reacting to Tejashwi's statement.
Significantly, while launching the Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) on October 2 last year, Prashant Kishor had asserted that his party would lift liquor ban in Bihar immediately after coming to power and use the excise revenue from alcohol running into several thousand crore for improving the quality of education in the state. The state's total annual revenue from its tax collection and other sources currently stands at about Rs 56,000 crore.
Facing various prohibition-related rows over the years, the Nitish government has made multiple amendments to the 2016 law. The last such amendment was brought in May 2023 when the state government decided to lower penalty for release of impounded vehicles from 50% of its insurance cover to 10%.
In December 2021, the then Chief Justice of India N V Ramana had flagged the Bihar liquor law as an example of 'lack of foresight' that resulted in the High Court 'being clogged with bail applications… a simple bail application takes a year to be disposed'.
Some key amendments were subsequently made to the prohibition law in 2022. One of them provided that first-time drinkers would no longer be imprisoned but would be only penalised with a fine of Rs 2,000-Rs 5,000 depending upon the socio-economic condition of the accused. This brought substantial reduction in people jailed for liquor consumption.
Other amendments included reversal of confiscation of an accused house upon recovery of liquor, restoration of Rs 4 lakh compensation to the kin of a deceased in a hooch consumption case, and reduction of punishment for drinking alcohol from 10 years to 3 years. The government also provided for summary trial of the prohibition cases by an executive magistrate.