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Church in Asia

Indian Catholic politician calls for ban on liquor shops on Good Friday

By RVA Bengali News Service | March 11, 2022
A Catholic politician in India requested Tamil Nadu State Government to close liquor shops on Good Friday. But social media called the idea “unnecessary,” and “ a bad idea” whereas the Indian National Congress party termed it “crazy.”
Liquor shop in India. (Photo: Supplied)

A Catholic politician in India requested Tamil Nadu State Government to close liquor shops on Good Friday. But social media called the idea “unnecessary,” and “ a bad idea” whereas the Indian National Congress party termed it “crazy.”

Peter Alphonse, the chairperson of Tamil Nadu Minorities Commission, wrote to Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on March 3, urging him to close all government liquor shops on April 15.

Alphonse said all liquor shops in the State of Tamil Nadu be closed for the entire day as a mark of respect and solidarity with the Christian community, which commemorates the passion and death of Jesus Christ with fasting and abstinence on Good Friday.

The Catholic politician made his letter public on social media on March 9.  But this proposal has led several social media users to criticize this request as “unnecessary” and a “bad idea.” Not only this, but also Alphonse’s party, the Indian National Congress, has criticized his idea and has dubbed it as “crazy.”

Archbishop George Anthony of Madras – Mylapore called the proposal meaningful, supporting Alphonse’s proposal.  However, the archbishop has left the matter to be decided by the State Government.

Several social media users have commented that if the Tamil Nadu State Government imposes a ban on liquor sales on Good Friday, it will be a despotic equivalent of “imposing unnecessary restrictions” on other communities who do not belong to the Christian community.

Indian State governments are known to announce the closure of slaughterhouses and liquor shops on religious festivals like Mahavir Jayathi, the birthday of the founder of Jainism, and Eid-e-Milad-un-Nabi, which happens to be the birthday of Prophet Muhammad.

But there was a severe backlash on social media last November against the state government after it announced such a ban on the enlightenment day of Mahavir, which coincided with Diwali, the popular Hindu festival. The government was forced to withdraw the ban notification.

With input from Atanu Das and UCA News.

 

Radio Veritas Asia (RVA), a media platform of the Catholic Church, aims to share Christ. RVA started in 1969 as a continental Catholic radio station to serve Asian countries in their respective local language, thus earning the tag “the Voice of Asian Christianity.”  Responding to the emerging context, RVA embraced media platforms to connect with the global Asian audience via its 21 language websites and various social media platforms.

Tags
India
Tamil Nadu
Good Friday

Comments

Sam Daniel, Mar 15 2022 - 9:36am
Controversial move indeed! No doubt with good intentions. But why? Why to impose our own cultural ritual (abstinence and fast) on others? Practicing Catholics anyway will be observing the Good Friday rituals and prayers according to their own cultural customs. Calling for a one day ban on liquor will not bring back the 'fallen away' Catholics to the fold. We Christians talk a lot about 'Freedom' and 'choice', but we seem to forget an important point that conversion is from the heart and any amount of bans and restrictions are only externals. Alphonse is trying to score some political brownie points. It has nothing to do with faith.
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