Letters: No magical solution

With the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections due next year, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam President M Karunanidhi has claimed that if elected to power he would enforce prohibition of alcohol in the state and govern according to the principles of Mahatma Gandhi and former Tamil Nadu chief minister C N Annadurai.

Karunanidhi admitted recently that when C Rajagopalachari called on him one rainy day in 1971 to not lift prohibition in the state - Karunanidhi was the chief minister then - he had explained his inability to do so due to the state's depleted finances. He said that decision made him feel guilty now. Will the state's finances improve magically if Karunanidhi comes to power and implements a total ban on alcohol? If the veteran politician has any regard for Gandhi, he should not drag the latter's name into the matter.

V Jayaraman, Oregon

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