The Tamil Nadu government earned a startling revenue of Rs.36,000 crores in the FY22 (2021-2022) by selling liquor through the State Marketing Corporation (TASMAC), while alcohol-related abuses and tragedies remain a social reality oft-neglected by political parties.
Govindarajan (age 40) is an alcoholic living without a job in Chinna Madhurapakkam village in the Kanchipuram district with his wife. She works at a garbage segregation unit in Uthukadu to look after their family of four daughters — Nandhini (16), Nadhiya (14), Dheena (11), and Deepa (9).
On Friday, as Nandhini and Deepa return from the school, they find their father drinking. The home is already in a spate of distress after their sister Nadhiya commits suicide following a tiff with Govindarajan two weeks back. So the children scold him for drinking. In a drunken state of fury, Govindarajan picks up a log and beats the two children to death. Then he bolts the door to gulp down the remaining liquor. A short while later, Dheena returns from school and finds the door closed from the inside. When no one opens the door after repeated knocking, she calls her grandmother, and with the help of a neighbor, they forcefully open the door and find the sisters in a pool of blood.
Govindarajan’s case is one in many. Because his alcoholic abuse reached murderous proportions, it’s blatantly out for everyone to see. However, countless women and children face circumstances worse than death living with maniacs like Govindarajan. Why? Because they are addicted to alcohol.
Let people drink and ruin themselves but not destroy others’ life. These children must have had their dreams and aspirations to fulfill. Their mother must have held them dearer to her life — earning and living for them. The gruesome death of three of her daughters must be a colossal tragedy for her. It has fallen upon her because she married a lunatic who fell for drinking. But in her loss, someone earned a profit. It isn’t hard to put the dots together to see who profited when this man came home drunk, beating up the children, and passing out every night.
Now the big question is, what’s the government doing to end alcohol abuse? A girl student commits suicide fearing NEET exams in Tamil Nadu, and the political parties gang up to up the regional ante. They also pass a resolution in the state assembly seeking a ban on NEET.
Yes, we don’t want our children to die. But here we have an aggrieved girl child killing herself, unable to bear the abusive behavior of her alcoholic father, and two of the state’s daughters brutally murdered by this ruthless man. Where are the political parties now? Will they come together to pass a resolution in the assembly to shut down TASMAC and ban liquor in the state? It’s indeed a multi-million dollar question. Because what’s at stake is a huge revenue going to the state coffers and the business of distilleries aligned with major political parties.