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Ahead of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly’s Budget Session starting on March 3, calls for a liquor ban have been growing stronger in the Union Territory.
Three private member Bills aimed at a liquor ban have been submitted to the Assembly Secretariat for introduction in the coming Session.
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) MLA Fayaz Ahmad was the first off the block, submitting a Bill to “prohibit the advertisement, sale, purchase, consumption and manufacture of alcoholic drinks in Jammu and Kashmir”. National Conference (NC) MLA Ahsan Pardesi and Independent legislator Sheikh Khurshid Ahmad followed suit.
The Bills come amidst a substance abuse and addiction crisis in J&K. In 2023, The Indian Express carried a series on the problem, reporting how “one addict walks into Srinagar OPD every 12 minutes”, with the then J&K DGP describing the crisis as “a bigger threat than militancy”
While the sale and consumption of liquor is not banned in J&K, its public consumption has always been considered a taboo in the Valley. Under Section 510 of the Ranbir Penal Code (RPC) — the criminal code that was in place in J&K before the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019 — “misconduct in public by a drunken person” was a punishable offence.
In recent times, social media posts showing apparently drunk tourists on Kashmir streets have created outrage in some quarters in the Valley.
This was seen as behind a recent decision by traders at Srinagar’s Lal Chowk — one of the major tourist attractions in Srinagar — to display signboards urging tourists not to consume alcohol and drugs in public. The police move to take down these signboards received backlash from the public as well as the Valley-based parties.
Along with the Bill moved by its MLA, the PDP has launched a signature campaign to garner public support for a liquor ban.
“There are multiple videos of inebriated tourists. There was one where they were peeing in the Dal lake. This is not just about alcohol. It is also about respecting basic societal norms and etiquettes,” the PDP’s Iltija Mufti, the media advisor to party president and her mother Mehbooba Mufti, told The Indian Express.
She added, “If Gujarat can be declared a dry state, the logic is all the more strong for a Muslim-majority region like J&K”.
PDP chief whip Waheed Para</strong> said there was “a steep increase in addiction over the years”. “It is about the health of the society. We will lose some revenue because of the ban, but that is still less than the social costs that we have to pay.”
The NC-led government under Omar Abdullah has been treading carefully on the issue, partly due to this revenue issue. Liquor sales saw a rise from Rs 1,353 crore in 2020 to Rs 2,486 crore in 2024, adding substantially to J&K’s coffers.
NC chief spokesperson Tanvir Sadiq strayed into controversy when he tried to steer clear of committing to a ban, saying “several factors are to be taken into account when deciding” on a policy change of this scale.
“J&K is a tourist place. This (liquor) is also allowed in many Arab countries. We have to take all the stakeholders such as the travel agents’ association along… Collectively we are against it (liquor) but we have to see other factors as well,” Sadiq said.
After the Valley’s chief priest and Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, among others, criticised Sadiq, saying he had spoken “irresponsibly”, the NC spokesperson made a quick retreat, saying he personally supported a liquor ban.
At the same time, calls for a liquor ban keep circulating in the Valley. Opposition leaders have also moved Bills in the Assembly in the past, with religious scholars and civil society supporting this.
In March 2014, when the NC was in power, the PDP’s Abdul Haq Khan had tabled a Bill seeking a ban on the sale, import and consumption of liquor in J&K.
Two years later, when the PDP came to power, the civil society in Kashmir and religious leaders launched a sustained campaign against the sale and consumption of liquor. But then Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu had vehemently opposed the calls for a ban, citing “freedom of choice”.
“There is a demand for banning liquor, but I believe that the issue needs to be addressed on the basis of freedom of choice. As a State policy, we cannot enforce our decisions on others… There is freedom of choice. Let the people decide what they want to do,” Drabu had said in the Assembly.
In 2018, the NC’s Ishfaq Jabbar and the Congress’s G M Saroori had tabled Bills in the Assembly for a ban on liquor. The Bills were allowed for consideration by then Speaker Kavinder Gupta of the BJP, but fell through.
