A SHOT AT RECOVERY

A REVIVAL PLAN Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot has surprised many by bringing in changes in the state’s liquor policy

Marking a major departure from its conservative liquor policy, the Rajasthan government, on April 1, issued a notification allowing bars in the state to operate microbreweries. The state’s excise department is its second-largest source of tax revenues and, after 15 years of stagnation, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has finally ushered in changes. The move has surprised many since Gehlot, a teetotaller and professed Gandhian, is not known to be sympathetically inclined towards stakeholders in the liquor business.

The apparent change of heart and the new liquor policy are, in fact, driven by the desperate need to shore up state revenues—for possible government interventions during the ongoing pandemic. The loss of revenue has, of course, been exacerbated by the pandemic and its