Kashmir’s elderly politicians Syed Ali Geelani and Dr Farooq Abdullah representing two different ideologies entered into a war on newspaper front pages over the reopening of liquor shops and cinema halls. Investigating the issue, R S Gull suggests both leaders share ignorance of the ground realities.
Some people are desperate to see Kashmir going back to the old days when wine was available in every nook and corner,” cried an Imam from the pulpit of an uptown mosque on Friday. “This is the Vale of the Pirs and we can never permit it.”
This was not the only mosque where the Friday congregations were briefed by the Imams about the possibility of the government getting aggressive to see wine and liquor shops opening outside the well-secured areas. Thanks to unpredictable Dr Farooq Abdullah, former chief minister of the state, who suggested the trade while presiding over a function that was supposed to commemorate his father Shikeh Mohammad Abdullah. Dr Abdullah talked about the resistance his father offered to the then Prime Minister who had suggested a ban on liquor.
“We watch movies at home but outside we shout Islam is in danger,” Dr Abdullah said. “We don’t have cinemas here, where will the tourists go at night? Do you want them to stay inside the room idle?” He put a very strong case for reopening the wine and liquor shops because Kashmir is a tourist place.
It had an immediate reaction. “Islam declares liquor as the mother of all evils and orders punishment against those who consume it,” Syed Ali Geelani said, adding, “…Advocating the opening of liquor shops in Muslim majority state speaks of the mental apostasy of Dr Farooq who despite his old age retains his mischievous character.” He asked people to protest the move after the Friday prayers. Even lawmaker Engineer Abdul Rashid felt hurt by the statement.
And the chain reaction continued. “We are a liberal and secular democratic country and not an Islamic state,” Dr Abdullah said, this time from Delhi. “If Kashmir wants to have good tourism it needs to have the required infrastructure. Be it cinema or other things,” he said. Soon, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah was tweeting.
“Given that cable TV providers show all the movies that would come to cinemas & some that don’t will Geelani ask us to ban cable now?” read one of his tweets. “I would be interested to know how many Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) member countries (including Pakistan & Bangladesh) allow cinemas to function in their countries?” he said in another one.
The latest on the issue was from Mirwaiz Umer Farooq who told the Friday congregation at Kashmir’s biggest mosque that it is high time for Dr Abdullah to “take rest”. Tourists, the cleric said, do not come to Kashmir to consume liquor but to see the beauty of the Valley. He said J&K is not an Islamic state but a Muslim-majority state and the values of a society do not change with the status of the state. “Farooq’s son Omar Abdullah, should clarify whether promoting immoral activities was part of the state policy,” Mirwaiz asked.
The Cinema Hall
But, it seems as if the leaders of Kashmir lack access to the realities of the society they claim to be representing. Take a snapshot of the cinema, for instance. Till 1989, cinemas were a full-fledged industry and the only option of visible entertainment.
Once banned by insurgents, it created huge vacant spaces in Kashmir. As the moneyed were fleeing and the soldiers landed, some of these vacant spaces were taken over and converted into camps. These ‘camps’ would accommodate kitchens, bedrooms, prison cells and interrogation dungeons.
Palladium in the LalChowk was housing BSF when it went up into flames in an incident involving the BSF and the militants. It is perhaps the only building that symbolises the ‘war’ Kashmir has gone through. A delay in its reconstruction might be because of the disputes its ownership involves. Shah Cinema in Qamarwari continues to be a security camp, so is the Shiraz in the old city and the Naaz in uptown. All are housing CRPF behind the concertina wiring encircling the premises. Only last week, Firdous, another old city cinema was vacated and the owners are reportedly not interested in running a cinema hall, again. Samad Talkies in Sopore and the Heavan in south Kashmir Islamabad are still with the paramilitary forces.
Post-ban, some of the owners of these cinema halls tried their bit to alter the premises’ use. Regal Cinema in LalChowk went into disuse and later its owners also changed. Now it houses several offices. Khayam, another major cinema, was converted by its owners – the Khyber Group, into Khyber Medical Institute, one of the major private hospitals in the city that is emerging as a reference in various super-specialty areas including cardiac and gastro care. It is the only privately run hospital in J&K that owns a Cathlab. The companies owned by the group are funding its infrastructure as the patient footfalls help sustain the routine.
After Dr Farooq Abdullah replaced a prolonged spell of the gubernatorial regime, he made a serious effort to revive the cinemas. Two cinema halls availed the package and started showing the films – the Broadway owned by Congressman Terath Ram Amla and Neelum run by an aged businessman
Saif-ud-Din who is known as Neelam. It did not click, the Amlas’ availed the package, closed the cinema and converted it into a commercial complex. The Neelam’s decided against closing it but are not getting people to watch the films they screen. “It has been closed for more than a month now because there is nobody,” shopkeepers outside the Cinema Hall told this reporter. The talkie is locked behind coils of concertina wires.
Cinema halls becoming garrisons and the only functional halls not getting the people to watch does not essentially mean the people do not watch the movies. Bollywood is perhaps one of the few survivors of the turmoil in Kashmir. The cable and the satellite TV have taken over leaving almost no room for the cinema halls.
A major businessman said they would prefer setting up a shopping mall and not a cinema. “Primarily, the people are not interested in going to the cinema halls and then you have an unpredictability factor attached to such investments,” the businessman said on the condition of anonymity. “In situations of turmoil when security forces take over these halls, it hits investor’s credibility in the society.”
The Wine Story
Wine is not a very different story but a huge business, a mafia of sorts that has a cumulative turnover of around Rs 800 crores a year. But it does not concern Kashmir. “Even before the arrival of ‘air marshal’ Noor Khan, Kashmir was not consuming so much of liquor,” an officer who has served the Excise department of the finance ministry said. “It was always more specific to Jammu and continues to be.”
J&K has an impressive liquor market. During 2010-11, J&K sold 43402000 bottles of beer, whisky and Indian-made foreign liquor plus 63921 bottles of costly RTD (ready-to-drink) Vodka. Compared to 2009-10 when J&K market sold 37190000 bottles, it was an increase of 6212000 bottles.
Consider the dispersal of the market. There are 14 manufacturers, 163 shops selling IMFL, 82 bars, 27 wholesale dealers, 22 hotels and bars, nine bottling plants, six clubs and 26 molasses importers. Interestingly, as Dr Farooq and Geelani were fighting over the issue in Kashmir, there was a raging battle going on between two newspapers in Jammu and the major area of concern is that one runs 14 liquor shops, two depots and one bottling plant and the other not that much.
“Invariable every newspaper in Jammu has an interest in wine because they own distilleries, wholesale depots, shops and bars,” a journalist who works for a Jammu newspaper said. “The freedom of press and expression in Jammu is somehow linked to the liquor directly or indirectly.” Some people call it Vodka journalism!
Those manufacturing liquor in J&K service the J&K market and then export as well. J&K manufacturers sell wine for around Rs 45 crores a year to other states. At the same time, J&K sources premium brands from outside and the quantum of imports increased from Rs 85.57 crores in 2008-09 to Rs 107.17 crores in 2009-10.
But how much this marketing infrastructure is in Kashmir? There are two wholesalers, two wine shops, three restaurants having licenses for wine shops, and three IMFL retailer clubs – Royal Springs Golf Club, Amar Singh Club and Kashmir Golf Club. All three put together do not consume as much liquor as Jammu Press Club consumed – 16551 bottles in 2008-09 and 20663 bottles in 2009-10.
Jammu’s liquor consumption is massive. IMFL, Beer and JK Whisky, all pot together, J&K minus Kashmir Valley consumed it worth Rs 387.41 crores in 2008-09 and Rs 421.84 crores in 2009-10.
Kashmir is not a major player in consumption. Against consuming liquor and beer worth Rs 12.59 crores in 2008-09, the Valley ended up drinking liquor worth Rs 19.39 crores in 2009-10 as the consumption jumped from 958339 bottles to 1622632. This is insignificant for a place that played host to a million tourists in 2011, so far.
The Kashmir Market
But it is also a fact that liquor does contribute to the public kitty. The contribution is huge. It was contributing Rs 31.05 crores to the public kitty in 1990-91. But now, it is paying the state Rs 358.22 crores (2010-11). The yearly increase is huge. It was Rs 271.72 crores in 2008-09 and Rs 303.70 crores in 2009-10.
But Kashmir is not contributing anything. In 2009-10, official sources told Kashmir Life, the excise department Rs 1.64 crores of excise duty from the sale of liquor from civilian shops and Rs 23.70 crores from the army canteens alone.
Kashmir pays less because it drinks little. Do not fight.
