Why only water, not booze on tap? Kerala incident may give ideas to those intent on tipp(l)ing poll balances

Assertions of liquor flowing like water are part of electioneering lore in India. Booze on tap — so to speak — is often offered as a subterranean lure by elements who want to give normal canvassing an additional high. Local self-government elections are indeed due in October-November in Kerala, but it would certainly be premature to conjecture that any entity has got into the campaign spirit so early that distinctly alcoholic liquid is already flowing from taps in a modest apartment building in Chalakudy in Kerala’s Thrissur district.

Had this version of ‘liquor on the house’ been part of a nefarious plan rather than an evident accident, it could definitely have been channelled as a step up from the Centre’s abstemious ambition of providing merely drinkable water from taps across the country.

As it turned out, 6,000 litres of impounded liquor was improperly disposed of by Kerala excise officials in a pit and had leeched into the nearby well from where water was drawn for those apartments. If this had happened later in the year, there may well have been a sudden groundswell of support for someone. However, the fact that home-delivered alcoholic swigs can be pulled off can still give ideas to those intent on tipp(l)ing the balance in the future. Water bodies should be monitored to prevent their becoming any blenders’ pride.