Total prohibition, which helped Haryana Chief Minister Bansi Lal in his resurrection from political oblivion 20 months ago, seems to have become an albatross round his neck.Easy availability of liquor in most parts of the State, complaints of police harassment and extortion, and involvement of influential people in liquor smuggling, allegedly with official patronage, are being exploited by opposition parties in the election campaign.In 1996, Bansi Lal's Haryana Vikas party (HVP) and its ally BJP had won seven of the 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana. ``This time, nashabandi (total prohibition) will cause his downfall, just as nasbandi (forced sterilisation) did in 1977,'' says Rohtas of Killoi village in Rohtak.The remark recurs elsewhere in Haryana. The comparison with Emergency excesses, although exaggerated, isn't completely divorced from reality either. A transporter says had to pay Rs 2,200 when the police ``recovered'' a liquor pouch from his truck. Vivek Gugnani of Hisar had to spend a night inthe police lock-up after the ``recovery'' of a pint from his car.``This is police raj,'' says Ram Lal, a farm labourer of Alipur village on Panchkula-Barwala road. He was just lying in the sun in his field when two policemen rudely woke him up and started frisking him. When they found nothing, they asked where he had hidden the stuff. He was let off only when others intervened.Last time, Ram Lal had voted for BJP candidate Suraj Bhan, who later became Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha. This time, he will vote for the Congress, although he doesn't know the name of the candidate. ``This didn't happen in the Congress raj,'' he said.Former chief minister Bhajan Lal, who is contesting from Karnal, always tells his audiences that while the police harass small men, they let truckloads of liquor pass. Madan Lal of Kanjnu, in Radaur segment of Kurukshetra constituency, agrees.He attended a marriage where liquor flowed. On his way home, he saw two guests, who had taken a few drinks, being taken away by thepolice because ``they did not have enough money''. If the police meant business, they should have tried to find out the source of liquor, Madan Lal says. He had voted for O.P. Jindal of the HVP last time. This time his favourite is HLD (R) candidate Kailasho Saini.HLD (R) leader Om Prakash Chautala, in his speeches, rarely forgets to mention the arrest of relatives of Sports Minister Ram Saroop Rama and HVP vice-president Ved Pal with liquor. ``The government imposed taxes on you to make up the revenue loss because of prohibition, but allows its own people and the police to make money by selling liquor,'' he says.Bansi Lal tries to convince the people about his sincerity. ``We have spared no one,'' he says. ``Just send me a post card and I will take care of those who sell liquor.'' But few are prepared to take such statements at face value.An example often cited is of Ranbir Sharma, SP of Kurukshetra, who was shifted to Yamunanagar, after he caught Ved Pal's relatives. He was transferred fromYamunanagar also because he was coming in the way of relatives of a minister there. ``Entire Yamunanagar knows it,'' says Deepak Kamboj, a shop keeper at Radaur.Although it is a Lok Sabha election, both Congress president B.S. Hooda and Chautala are promising a review of the prohibition policy, and offering free power and water for farmers on the pattern of neighbouring Punjab.The promise has its appeal. Raj Kumar, a farmer of Sandhir village in Karnal district, said it would benefit people like him. Prohibition, on the other hand, had burdened people with taxes. As the flow of liquor had not stopped, money was going to other States and into the pockets of a handful of people within Haryana, he says.
