J Jayalalithaa jumps into the 'prohibition' bandwagon too

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalithaa broke her silence on the party’s stand on prohibition in the state and said she will impose it in a phased manner if voted to power again in the May 2016 elections.

Despite being criticised by political opponents who said that the AIADMK-led state government was promoting alcoholism in the state, the government had until recently maintained and even announced in the assembly that it was not possible to impose prohibition in Tamil Nadu.

However, with the entire political class across the board promising prohibition in the state if voted to power, Jayallithaa too seems to have followed the trend.

In Tamil Nadu, the state has monopoly over liquor retail through the Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (Tasmac). Revenues from liquor sales amounts to about Rs 30,000 crore, which is approximately one-third of the States total revenues.

Kicking off the AIADMK’s state-wide political campaign which is scheduled to go on until the second week of May, Jayalalithaa speaking to a huge crowd in the Island grounds in Chennai said “total prohibition is a policy that I have always had, but it is impossible to impose prohibition with just one signature. It can only be done step by step…The AIADMK under my leadership will win the forthcoming elections and as soon as we form the government, prohibition will be imposed in a phased manner and eventually lead up to total prohibition.”

Attacking her main political rival and DMK president M Karunanidhi she said “Anybody in this state can talk about prohibition but Dr Karunanidhi should not talk about it…It was DMK that introduced alcohol to a generation which never knew alcohol.”

She pointed out that it was the Karunanidhi-led government that had lifted prohibition in Tamil Nadu in 1971.

Jayalalithaa remained seated on an empty stage and addressed the gathering for close to 45 minutes with 21 AIADMK candidates seated in chairs below the stage. She told the gathering that her speech was being broadcast live through special campaign vans that were stationed at vantage points in all 21 constituencies that she was going to address in her first rally.

Interestingly, while the AIADMK is facing a multi cornered contest pitted against parties including DMK, third front (Vijaykanth-led DMDK, Vaiko -led MDMK, left parties, G K Vasan-led TMC and Thirumavalavan-led VCK), PMK and BJP, she trained her guns only on the DMK. Jayalalithaa did not make a single point referring to the other parties that were in the fray.

The first half of Jayalalithaa’s campaign speech was packed with a series of welfare schemes rolled out in the last five years and projects completed by the AIADMK led government in Tamil Nadu.