Anna and the Alcoholics

Just as I was writing the title to this post, I realised that if I had any musical talent, I would definitely get a band going under this name. But this post is not about anything musical. It is about Anna Hazare's suggestions to deal with the menace of alcoholism, and also some responses to it.

In a refreshingly novel approach, he suggests that a drunkard creating trouble should just be warned the first three times he is caught, and also given a small lecture on why drinking is bad. And now I quote "But even after warning him thrice if he again drinks then we will take him to temple and he has to swear by God that he won't drink in future. And even after all this he drinks then we will tie him up to the electric pole in front of the temple and then beat him up so that he gets scared."

Bringing glory to rural India, he says he devised this method to cure alcoholics back in his village. Truly a Gandhian, eh? Sitting on a fast with a Gandhi topi one time, and flogging alcoholics publicly another. A hypocrite, but still a Gandhian I guess. He also says that reformed alcoholics have told him that they would have lost everything in their lives were it not for those public beatings. And here I was, thinking that S&M is not really all that big in this great country of mine.

While I don't refute the use of violence per se, I certainly don't agree with this suggestion by this man whose hypocritical ways don't let me have much respect for him anyway. But to be fair to him, a lot of people have spoken against this comment of his, saying he is no one to talk about something like this since the choice to drink or smoke is a personal one. What these idiots seem to not realise is that he is talking about alcoholics and those who get drunk and stir up trouble. Not everyone who drinks falls under either of those two categories. If you are a trouble maker and alcohol is your alibi, then well, I wouldn't mind landing you a punch or two myself. Unless of course, you get drunk and kill yourself by mistake. :)

Anyway, like a shrewd businessman, is he just trying to broaden his portfolio or taking his local global? Or is he just getting bored of his fight against corruption?