During the serious discussion on excise revenue in the Karnataka Assembly on Tuesday, a statement came out, which not only lightened the atmosphere of the House, but also gave rise to a new debate. Senior MLA of JD (S) M.T. Krishnappa suggested that two bottles of liquor should be given free of cost to men who drink alcohol. At the same time, senior Congress leader BR Patil strongly opposed this and made strong demand for prohibition. The debate started after Chief Minister Siddaramaiah increased the excise revenue target to Rs 40,000 crore in the budget of 2025-26. The state government is expected to raise Rs 36,500 crore by the end of the current financial year. Many MLAs expressed concern over this growth and questioned how this goal would be achieved.
“Government is burning the poor”: Krishnappa
MT Krishnappa, MLA from Turuvekere, said, “The government has increased the effectiveness of the poor three times in a year. He further said, “Those who drink alcohol, two bottles of liquor should be given free of cost. On this statement of Krishnappa, the House also laughed for some time.
“Win the election, form the government and do”: Congress minister’s taut
Energy Minister K.K. from the government J. Giving the answer to this suggestion, George said, “Win the election, form the government and then do what we want to do.”
“This is the money of sin”: BR Patil’s sharp reaction
The second end of this debate in the assembly, senior Congress MLA B.R. Patil was in his hand. Patil, MLA from Aland, said strongly, “This is the money of the poor’s money. He urged the central government to decide for prohibition of liquor at the national level, so that the same policy can be implemented in the entire country.
Opposition’s concern: “May we not depend on alcohol”
BJP MLA and opposition Deputy Leader in the Assembly Arvind Bellad expressed concern that the state government is becoming more dependent on excise revenue. He said, “Women are being given Rs 2,000 under the Griha Lakshmi Yojana, which is a total cost of Rs 28,608 crore, but the government is charging Rs 36,000 crore.” Giving the example of Bihar and Gujarat, he said that these states are running their work on without or very low excise revenue. “If we keep walking on this path, then social and moral crisis can arise in the coming time.”
“BJP no longer the right to talk about morality”: Priyank Khad will
IT and BT Minister Priyank Kharge responded to the opposition’s criticism, saying that the BJP government had also set the excise target of Rs 35,000 crore in its time. “If you were really in favor of prohibition, then bring the proposal now, who has stopped you?” Targeting the BJP, he said, “You cannot use Gandhi’s principles and the ideas of RSS arbitrarily.
This discussion in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly made it clear that there is no political consensus on liquor policy in the state. On the one hand, while some leaders are talking about adding it to the truth of the society and adding it to the ‘Welfare Scheme’, on the other hand some leaders are standing against it on moral grounds. The public will now have to see that this debate actually leads to any policy change or it also becomes only a discussion like other political discussions.
