Sixteen dead, over 40 hospitalised, three critical. The Sagar hooch tragedy in Madhya Pradesh is following a script India knows too well — illicit liquor, methanol lacing, deaths of daily wage earners, and then the state’s familiar choreography: demolition, inquiry, assurance.
What is different this time is the women. In Banda and Shahgarh sub-divisions, women from 125 villages are demanding a complete liquor ban. “You could get local-made and branded liquor at kirana shops… police and administration are well aware,” says Seema Rajak, whose son Durgesh lost his vision. Her anger points to the real ecosystem: spurious liquor is not a hidden cottage industry. It is retail, embedded in the village shop, protected by bribes.
Collector Pratibha Pal says the official toll of 16 is based on post-mortem viscera reports; more samples are pending. Five illegal properties of accused Chandrabhan Rajput, Manish Lodhi and Ashish Sahu were bulldozed on Thursday — a day after CM Mohan Yadav visited Sagar and gave police a “free hand”. The bulldozer has become justice’s shorthand, but it does not answer why test reports of seized liquor are still awaited.
Madhya Pradesh has seen prohibition demands before, led always by women who bear the cost of male drinking — violence, debt, lost wages. Their call for a full ban may be impractical, but it reflects state failure in regulation. Bihar’s total ban created its own mafia. The question is not ban vs no ban, but whether excise revenue dependence will ever allow strict enforcement. Until the kirana shop stops being a theka, Sagar will repeat.