On 10 July 2014, Mizoram's Legislative Assembly passed the controversial Mizoram Liquor (Prohibition & Control) (MLPC) Bill and overturned a 17-year-long prohibition on the consumption and production of alcohol within the state. The Bill, introduced by the Congress government's Excise and Narcotics Minister R Lalzirliana, was unanimously passed by the Assembly's 34 Congress legislators. The Assembly's six opposition members from the Mizoram Democratic Alliance staged a walkout as a mark of protest at the overturning of prohibition and the heralding of a new era in which licensed liquor shops and bars will once again be open for business.
Despite the Bill's passage, prohibition in Mizoram has, historically, achieved robust support. The Lalthanhawla-led Congress enacted the now defunct Mizoram Liquor Total Prohibition (MLTP) Act in 1995. When the Zoramthanga-led Mizo National Front (MNF) emerged with an absolute majority in the state's 1998 elections, there was little desire to overturn the statute. Throughout the MNF's decade-long rule, the MLTP Act of 1995 remained intact.
For some time now, the policies of consecutive Mizoram state governments have been in lockstep with the moral diktats of the state's authoritative Christian sects and their numerically significant votebanks. According to the most recent statistics, 86.97 percent of Mizoram's population identify themselves as 'Christian'. The Presbyterian Church of Mizoram, the Baptist Church Mizoram and other Christian sects have long pressured church-goers to resist the temptations of alcohol while warning of the dire social implications of repealing prohibition. As one church-goer told me, "Mizoram would never have become a state full of IAS [Indian Administrative Service], IPS [Indian Police Service] and IFS [Indian Forest Service] officers, as well as peace and high literacy, if it was not for the blessings of the church." Others are more nuanced in their approach to faith and politics, with one church member providing a salient counterpoint: "Last I heard, India is a non-religious state."
Predictably, the church campaigned against the introduction and passage of the MLPC Bill. Of more interest is the fact that prominent NGOs within Mizoram openly (and unanimously) took umbrage with the church's opposition to the Bill. Indeed, the church found itself alienated and at odds with other civil society groups, including those of Christian origins, signalling a change deeper than one's legal sanction to imbibe.