Swaraat / Venkatraman
TASMAC is a Government of Tamil Nadu undertaking that sells liquor in Tamil Nadu. As per its website it is wholly owned by Government of Tamil Nadu and is vested with the exclusive privilege of wholesale supply of IMFL for the whole state of Tamil Nadu as per section 17 (C) (1-A) (a) of the Tamil Nadu Prohibition Act, 1937. (Irony indeed).
What is curious about TASMAC is not only that it is constituted under Prohibition Act, but the reporting of its sales figures.
I did a Google search about TASMAC sales for Christmas 2022, 2023 and 2024. I was surprised to get results for liquor sales during Deepavali, Pongal etc, but not actual sales figures for Christmas or any other religious festival. Google search results shows various links to sources like The Hindu, The New Indian Express, One India, even Instagram.
Almost all the reporting seems to be on liquor sales in Tamil Nadu during festivals like Pongal, Deepavali. What is more perplexing is that this pattern seems to be same for Telengana and Karnataka also. Google search throws up articles on liquor sales in those States during Deepavali, even Dussehra. The articles and publications, whether online or print media, seem to be focused on highlighting and narrating sales figures for Hindu festivals only.
Through such focused reporting of liquor sales of religious festivals of one particular religion alone, the issue is the potential narrative building. This can be considered similar to the propaganda linking rape and India. People use search engines and the much touted Artificial Intelligence models also use these as the source. So even if the narrative is not for the present day, it is going to be the source for days in future.
Are the reports silent on Christmas? Not totally silent, but invariably, the Christmas sales numbers are not reported as sales for Christmas but get clubbed with New Year liquor sales. Sometimes, they are reported as “… period from 20th Dec to 01st Jan…” Very convenient, isn’t it.
The issue here is not merely about reporting of sales figures. TASMAC website, ofcourse doesn’t give details of month wise break-up of sales or break-up of sales for all festivals, irrespective of religion. Well, for that matter, the website doesn’t even have Annual reports for all the years.
Balanced reporting would state the numbers on month wise sales. Instead, linking the liquor sales to Hindu festivals alone in my opinion, is yet another atrocity literature in the making, similar to how every other Hindu festival is being maligned, whether Sankranti, Shivrathri, Holi, Onam or Deepavali.