270 days after Bihar liquor ban, major crimes up 13%
During a recent visit to Bihar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for his Bihar Liquor ban policy in Bihar. He said: “I greet Nitish Kumar from the core of my heart for launching a campaign against liquor. But, this work (prohibition) would not be a grand success only by efforts of Nitish Kumar or one party. All the political parties, social organisations and citizens have to participate in it to make it a ‘jan-jan ka andolan‘ (people’s movement).” In April 2016, Kumar announced a ban on the sale and consumption of country liquor in the state. The ban was one of Kumar’s key poll promises made to women voters– who rallied behind him strongly, as this Mint report indicates–during the 2015 assembly elections. Thirty days after the ban, Kumar claimed that the crime was down 27% , according to his analysis of crime data from April 2016 and April 2015. Nine months–or 270 days–into the ban, an IndiaSpend analysis of Bihar Police crime data, reveals that cognizable crime–which the police can investigate without a magistrate’s order–rose 13% between April and October 2016, from 14,279 in April to 16,153 in October (latest available data). In other words, the liquor ban does not correlate with a drop in crime, a primary reason for the new law, which came into being despite the Patna High Court holding it violative of the Constitution because it denied citizens their right to privacy under Article 21.