The sleepy village of Dubagunta in Nellore district was once the epicentre of Andhra Pradesh’s Prohibition movement. It was led by 83-year-old Vardhaneni
Rosamma, more popular as Dubagunta Rosamma, who became a cult figure by organising the women of the village to boycott arrack shacks luring their men. The local agitation was picked up by N T Rama Rao to make it a statewide movement for Prohibition. Today, it is a sign of the times that there are no less than five illegal liquor outlets or ‘belt shops’ in the sleepy village of 160 families.
The village has not seen much development. There is still no public transport to the village, bar a few autos in the morning and evening.
There is no irrigation its rainfed crops either. But there’s liquor available, IMFL now in place of arrack then. Some 70 per cent of the adults of the village are
to be found at the belt shops at some time or other.
What bugs Rosamma no end is that some of her co-agitationists are now running belt shops themselves. In an interview with The New Sunday Express, the
wizened agitator says she doesn’t have it in her any more to fight liquor, which is everywhere. Excerpts:
How do you see the free flow of liquor in the state?
It is shameful that the government, instead of promoting good health, is encouraging the people to drink more. There are umpteen ways for the government to earn money without liquor. You only have to remember that
N T Rama Rao ran the state without relying on liquor.
Chandrababu Naidu is again talking of a campaign against liquor.
Naidu has no moral right to do that. It was he who lifted the ban on liquor after he became the chief minister. What he says carries no conviction.
Why are you silent when liquor is flowing like water?
What can I do and for whose sake do I resume the movement? The very women who worked with me to start the anti-arrack movement are now vying with men to get licences for liquor shops. I wept for a whole day, unable to digest the news that the same Nellore women who were the torchbearers of the anti-arrack movement jostled with men for liquor shops. What hurts me more is to see women in my neighbourhood now managing belt shops near my house.
Will you be relaunch the movement if a political party or organisation approaches you?
I don‘t have the same strength, physically and mentally, that I had 1993. I am not sure any political leader will think of an anti-liquor protest, as most
leaders are directly or indirectly associated with the liquor trade.