There are two groups of people in Nagaland who don’t want to legalise sale of alcohol in the state. One group is those who don’t know the practical realities of the world and the other is those who are selling alcohol illegally now.
The first group who don’t support legalisation of sale of alcohol: All Nagas knows how far the NLTP act is a failure in our State, but those who are simple and abstain from use of alcohol don’t know it. Especially Theologians, Pastors and those working with different Church Associations don’t know the reality of the state and it’s people. Lets address them as Pastor (for all to understand) in my short and laymen's thoughts today. For example, if the Pastor passes by when there is a domestic argument at home then automatically it'll stop even if he doesn't say anything, even alcoholics will hide their drinks if they see him while drinking, even you and I will throw a cigarette away if we see our Pastor while smoking, am I right? This means we never show our real self to them and that's the main reason why they don't understand/ know the practical realities of our society today.
Even during elections we don't invite our Pastors when a candidate distributes money or for that matter he won't come even if invited, so except for hearing/ rumours he might have never seen in person about it. Suppose if you are sitting in the front at a gathering and your Pastor enters there, you'll definitely give him your seat if there are no empty chairs/seat at the front, but for me I never do that, I would rather let him seat at the back to let him understand the realities of our society, that's my understanding. Its not a show of insult to him or encouraging all to do the same but just to let him see and understand our society for real.
Some facts that our Pastors don't realise:
1. There are enough security personals to guard our state/district boundary check gates, so he might think that just by remembering them in his personal prayers is enough because he has never been in the uniformed service but it's obvious that those personals at the gate will surely show their most innocent angelic face if they sees their Pastor passing by during their allotted duty hours.
2. Just by enforcing hard and fast rules to implement NLTP, our Pastors might think that it’ll be a success because he thinks that everyone might be simple, honest and true like him but I'm sure he might not have seen how people are smuggling alcohol and drugs through different means.
3. They don't realise the rise in numbers of drug addicts due to enforcing NLTP. They are even shocked by the name Sunflower (name of a drug). They believe that if alcohol is restricted and banned strictly then all alcoholics will come searching for the church because as I have mentioned earlier they don't know the realities of our society and it's not their fault either.
So those who are against the lifting of NLTP are not aware that alcohol is available in every nook and corner of our state, that many Nagas are alcoholics. But they are not biased because they never knew our real self since we never showed them ourselves for real. If so then the Pastors will change their sermon and the change would have started from ourselves wherein we think that change will come from afar.
Those against lifting should take more responsibilities in prohibiting. Are there any Pastors who are willing to contribute half of their salaries or any amount for that matter? If not salaries then are they willing to sacrifice their time in banning the state boundary check gates from time to time? But in my opinion, your duty is not to prohibit alcohol but to save souls and for those who are saved will not go astray.
The Second group who doesn't support of sale of alcohol : Those who are in alcohol business now are in profit of 100-200% for every sale but when the prohibition lifts they won't be able to open shops like now or even sell from their own kitchen and even if they do sell people won't buy from them. If legalise then the profit margin could be only 10-20% per sale so the syndicates who are the main suppliers would never want to legalise the sale of alcohol, all their thoughts and prayer is to continue with the prohibition. Who knows they might even bribe those lawmakers to continue with the prohibition and if it doesn't work then they might even try to create tension and fear amongst the people.
Those who support legalising the sale of alcohol: Its better not to analyse that by legalising the sale of alcohol our state revenue will benefit. Because even if we encourage non drinkers to drink our revenue might come upto a mere 100 Crs maximum in a month which in a corrupted state like ours, a person can just vanish it in a blink of an eye. Therefore not focusing on the financial aspect but on the current state affairs we should take a bold decision. In a democratic setup, anyone and everyone has the right to give their personal opinion. Some Association might pressurise the lawmakers to continue with the prohibition basing their stand on the Biblical aspect or even the consequences of life and death but even if they say so or not everyone will die one day or the other, who knows you might not even wake up tomorrow morning. So we should not think that the church or the Pastor who comes with those opinions are God Himself.
Those forerunners who took the decision to prohibit the sale of alcohol in Nagaland had a great vision but we are witnessing it's total failure today. Know that the church doesn't administer a country/state. Even if the lawmakers legalise the sale of alcohol it's the duty and responsibility of every church to encourage and adhere it's members to abstain from such practices. Therefore, when the church cannot convince it's members to abstain from such practices why should we pressure others to continue with the prohibition?
S. T. Yapang Lkr.
s.t.yapanglkr@gmail.com
Lower Agri Colony Kohima.