PROHIBITION-Full Circle Once Again

Full Circle Once Again ANDHRA PRADESH chief minister Chandrababu Naidu's decision to amend the Prohibition Act to permit manufacture and sale of so-called Indian-made foreign liquor (IMFL) is indicative of crises of several kinds. At one level, the decision brings to public notice the severe distortions of the welfare principles that have occurred over the past decade or so. At another more mundane level, it underlines the fact that in a federal structure no single state can in an isolated way successfully bring in change in either its welfare or its economic policies. And at a third level, it prompts serious consideration of the political fall-out of anti- liquor movements.