The previous Left Democratic Front (LDF) government in Kerala, led by Pinarayi Vijayan, is facing renewed scrutiny over its liquor policy, with official documents and administrative records contradicting the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M)'s long-standing public position that it pursued regulated reduction of alcohol consumption rather than expansion. The disclosures, surfacing in Thiruvananthapuram, centre on the grant of bar licences and the entry of multinational liquor company Bacardi into Kerala's low-alcohol beverage market.

The Two Key Decisions Under Scrutiny

The first controversy involves the grant of 22 new bar licences in the 72 days immediately preceding the recent Assembly elections, with approvals continuing until the eve of the Model Code of Conduct coming into force on 9 April. The second centres on policy changes that allegedly opened Kerala's market to Bacardi's ready-to-drink, low-alcohol products, even as the state government publicly framed the move as an initiative to support fruit farmers.

Official policy documents indicate that the provision permitting wine production from agricultural produce and the clause allowing the sale of low-alcohol beverages were, in fact, separate measures. The Indian National Congress (Congress), however, alleges that the two were deliberately presented as a single farmer-centric initiative, creating a misleading impression that the policy would generate demand for locally grown fruits.

The Bacardi Lobbying Trail

Documents reportedly suggest that Bacardi had been lobbying successive LDF governments since 2017 for regulatory changes, with the company allegedly making representations directly to Excise Ministers before favourable departmental studies were initiated. Files relating to the tenure of then Excise Minister M.V. Govindan — now the State CPI-M Secretary — reportedly justify the policy shift not on farmer-support grounds but on the argument that promoting beverages with approximately 20 per cent alcohol content over conventional 42 per cent liquor would help moderate overall consumption.

Critics argue this rationale contradicts the party's public messaging, which had consistently emphasised restraint and social responsibility in alcohol policy.

The Numbers Tell a Different Story

The statistical record sharpens the contradiction. When the United Democratic Front (UDF) government under then Chief Minister Oommen Chandy demitted office in 2016, Kerala had approximately 29 functioning bars, following restrictions the UDF itself had introduced. By the time the LDF completed two consecutive terms in office, that figure had crossed 900, after bar licences were extended to hundreds of three-star and four-star hotels. The previous LDF government also extended bar operating hours from 11 pm to midnight.

Notably, the CPI-M had been among the most vocal critics of the UDF's liquor policy during the Oommen Chandy years, even as it maintained that outright prohibition was impractical and that scientific regulation was the appropriate approach.

Assembly Confrontation and Congress Probe Push

Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan recently cited these figures on the floor of the Kerala Assembly, accusing the CPI-M of abandoning the principles it had once publicly championed. The Congress is now compiling documents to seek a Vigilance probe into both the bar licence grants and the policy decisions surrounding low-alcohol beverages.

The CPI-M has rejected the allegations, insisting that its liquor policy throughout its decade in office was guided by public interest. As the political confrontation deepens, the debate has shifted beyond individual decisions to what critics describe as a structural contradiction between the Left's public advocacy of controlled consumption and the expansive liquor ecosystem that took shape under its watch.

How the Vigilance probe demand plays out — and whether the new government orders an independent review — will determine whether this remains a political argument or becomes a formal accountability process.