Pained by minister’s idea, Sudha Murthy says ban liquor to protect poor women

Infosys Foundation chairperson Sudha Murthy on Thursday urged the state government to ban the sale of liquor in the larger interest of poor women. Her comments followed Karnataka excise minister H Nagesh’s loud idea to provide liquor at the doorsteps of consumers in an attempt to ease supplies.

Murthy said she has seen from close quarters how liquor has ruined poor households and destroyed families. “Increasing the sale of liquor may benefit the government in terms of revenue. But liquor is a social evil, and its biggest victims are women and their children,” Murthy told ET.

Nagesh had told the media on Wednesday that his plans, if implemented, would not only prevent drunk driving and accidents, but also increase tax revenue. His department, the minister had said, had decided to introduce mobile sale units of liquor in tribal areas so that people there don’t consume illicit liquor.


Expressing herself against any move to promote liquor consumption, Murthy said: “I have closely worked with poor women in the backward areas. The drunk men thrash their wives and daughters, and on many occasions, desert them. Liquor addiction has destroyed families.”

Nagesh, a technocrat-turned-minister, kicked up a storm after what he thought was a novel idea came under severe attack in the social media on Thursday. Chief minister BS Yediyurappa too is learnt to have telephoned the minister on Thursday morning, and given him a piece of his mind for shooting off his mouth. The CM was said to be upset because the minister’s remarks on boosting liquor sales come at a time when the state is battling severe floods at several places and struggling to rebuild lives.

The minister, who issued a clarification on Thursday, claimed his statement had been misinterpreted, and the government had no idea of providing liquor to consumers at their doorstep. Instead, the government would check the manufacture and sale of spurious liquor, he said.

Nagesh is a first-time MLA from Mulabagal (SC) constituency in Kolar district and won as an Independent candidate backed by the Congress. He was a minister in the previous JD(S)-Congress government, but shifted loyalty to the BJP weeks before the collapse of the previous government.