Another aspect to which certain speakers have referred, and they have actually objected to it is that prohibition has not been incorporated as an immediate task before the country. I am glad, Sir, that it has only been incorporated as a policy to be pursued by the different units and as the realities of the situation demand. Many of the far-reaching reforms, constructive projects, are being held up simply because we are short of funds. There is the question of inflation too, and I feel that when we talk of prohibition and about its being brought about immediately in the country, I feel it is just a mental luxury that we are going to have. Otherwise, so far as practical things go, I am afraid that many of my friends who are bent upon killing recreation and pleasure wherever possible shall have to wait for some time. I am reminded that in the Punjab this prohibition as elsewhere has to be enforced by officers who do not themselves believe in prohibition. In the villages, when they go to check illicit distillation, the orders were to destroy the jars used for the distillation of illicit liquor, but the village police who went there, instead of destroying the jars, drank the whole of the liquor, and when questioned, they said that the order given to them was “that the people who distilled the liquor should be dispossessed of it and we have done it. Instead of spilling such a nice thing in the dust, we made a better use of it and we drank the whole of it.” When such is the case, I am afraid that we must first bring about an atmosphere of acceptance of prohibition, and then only we should try this wholesale prohibition.
