SRINAGAR: With the BJP throwing its weight behind calls for a ban on liquor in Jammu and Kashmir, the pressure is building on the ruling National Conference to ban the use and consumption of alcohol in the Union Territory.
The BJP leaders and workers today staged a protest at Gupkar Road in Srinagar near Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s residence to demand a complete ban on liquor in J&K.
Carrying banners and placards demanding a total ban on alcohol, BJP leaders and workers attempted to march toward the CM’s residence but were stopped by police and made to disperse peacefully.
BJP spokesman Altaf Thakur, who was leading the protest, said the party demands a complete ban on liquor in J&K as in BJP-ruled states of Gujarat and Bihar.
He said the party plans a series of demonstrations across the Valley from Qazigunde, Kashmir, to Karnah near the Line of Control.
The demand to ban liquor comes amid a significant rise in alcohol consumption and revenue generation in the UT.
In the past two years, J&K has collected nearly Rs 2,152 crore in excise revenue, with Muslim-majority Kashmir contributing Rs 184.48 crore.
Srinagar district led the Valley in revenue collection, generating Rs 65.57 crore in 2024–25, while Jammu district recorded Rs 509.13 crore.
Thakur slammed CM Omar Abdullah over his stance that liquor shops are meant only to individuals whose religious beliefs permit alcohol consumption.
“It is banned in Islam, and other religions also prohibit it,” Thakur said, stressing that liquor proliferation threatens the region’s social fabric.
J&K’s Grand Mufti, religious parties, political parties including PDP, Congress, Apni Party and Peoples Conference, and civil society groups have been demanding a ban on liquor consumption to safeguard the younger generation from falling into liquor addiction.
In the Assembly this year, Omar announced that the government has no proposal to declare J&K a dry UT as any prohibition would fuel smuggling, hit tourism and hurt the economy.
His (Omar's) father and three-time former J&K CM Farooq Abdullah recently recalled that when his father (late Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah) won the election in 1977, then Indian PM Morarji Desai visited Kashmir and told him to ban liquor. My father told him, "I don't drink, but if you give us revenue that we earn through liquor sales, we will ban it here.”
The NC president, however, said if the central government helps and provides necessary support to offset revenue generated, the J&K government will ban the sale of liquor in two minutes.
Thakur, however, asserted that the Omar government, which oversees the Excise Department under the Finance Ministry, has full authority to impose a ban without the centre's approval.
“If the Assembly convenes a session on liquor prohibition, we will fully support it,” he said, emphasising that J&K’s potential in tourism, handicrafts, and forests could offset any revenue loss.
Senior NC leader Nazir Ahmed Gurez termed the BJP’s protest as "drama". “Our government will not close the liquor shops on their call. We will take a call on our own,” he said.