The Hindu Editorial Analysis
17 May 2025
Drinking to death: Illicit liquor tragedies expose systemic corruption and regulatory failure
(Source – The Hindu, National Edition – Page No. – 08)
Topic: GS 2 & GS 3: Governance | Health and Safety | Corruption and Accountability | Policy and Law Enforcement
Context
- A recent illicit liquor tragedy near Amritsar, Punjab, claimed at least 23 lives, echoing a recurring pattern of alcohol poisoning seen across India.
- Such incidents highlight a nexus of poverty, bootlegging, corruption, and lax regulation that continues to evade meaningful reform.
Introduction
The Cycle of Illicit Liquor: A Familiar Pattern
Cheap alcohol continues to cost expensive lives.
Every few months, India wakes up to news of another hooch tragedy—a term that sanitizes what is essentially mass murder by negligence.
Behind every illicit brew is a systemic failure of governance, feeding on economic desperation and official apathy.
1. Victims and Vulnerabilities
- Most victims are poor, daily wage workers, lured by cheap and easily available spurious liquor.
- For many, this is not a choice, but a means to escape the hardship of everyday life.
2. The Bootlegging Nexus
- Illicit brews are made using dangerous shortcuts, often involving industrial methanol—a deadly poison when ingested.
- Methanol, used in petrochemical industries, is legal but not consumable, and its diversion into bootlegging is the crux of the crisis.
Systemic Issues: Corruption, Gaps, and Delays
1. Regulatory Failures and Legal Loopholes
- Most States treat methanol as a downstream industrial chemical, not a public health hazard.
- The Poison Act exists, but few are convicted under it. The 2015 Malvani case, where 14 were accused and none convicted, shows poor legal implementation.
2. Politico-Police Nexus
- Local political patronage, police indifference, and organised theft from legal methanol channels fuel the crisis.
- While suspensions follow tragedies, accountability rarely travels upward.
Need for a Coherent Policy Response
1. Central Regulation and Transport Oversight
- Since methanol production is inter-State, there is a strong case for a national tracking mechanism, with mandatory reporting and licensing.
2. Strengthening the Poison Act
- The Act should be amended to make intentional or negligent diversion of methanol a punishable offence, with stricter penalties and fast-track courts.
Addressing the Root: Poverty, Demand, and Awareness
1. Structural Inequality and Demand for Cheap Alcohol
- Spurious liquor thrives where poverty meets neglect. Until livelihoods improve, people will remain vulnerable to toxic alternatives.
2. Education and Rehabilitation Campaigns
- States must invest in de-addiction programmes, awareness drives, and promotion of safe, affordable alternatives.
- Reducing demand is as important as regulating supply.
Conclusion
Illicit liquor deaths are not accidents—they are the inevitable outcome of a broken system.
Until we fix the trifecta of poor enforcement, economic inequality, and political impunity, more lives will continue to be lost to poison disguised as relief.
India doesn’t need more condolences—it needs urgent regulatory reform, legal accountability, and social investment to end this deadly cycle.