Kochi: It's the most spirited debate the state has seen recently. Who has the right to sell Kerala's home-grown brew, toddy, also known as kallu? Various factors have ensured that the ferment won't end soon. For a start, the United Democratic Front (UDF) Government has privatised the Rs 200-crore liquor industry, despite recommendations to the contrary by a government sub-committee. That's a reversal of the previous Left Democratic Front's (LDF) decision to entrust the industry to cooperatives after spurious liquor killed 30 people in January 2001.

The Government's decision has led to the creation of a grand alliance of the Church, prohibitionists, Gandhians and Muslim organisations against the Government's "permissive decision" which will lead to "inevitable hooch tragedies". Archbishop Susaipakiam recalled that as chief minister, A.K. Antony had banned arrack in 1994, and wondered why he had changed policy now.

He needn't look far for the answer. Finding fresh markets for toddy, which is made from coconut flowers, would help coconut farmers get a better price for their crop. But with Kerala's excise laws permitting only licence holders to manufacture alcohol or tap toddy, the farmers-ironically, led by the Church-are demanding the right to tap toddy from their own coconut palms. Some enterprising businessmen have requested permission to produce and market the poor man's drink in tin cans, like beer, in collaboration with Sri Lankan firms.

The CPI(M), which has enormous clout among toddy tappers, has hopped on to the bandwagon. Together with scientists from the state agricultural university, it plans to float a company to produce "Kerasudha", a sweet toddy with very low alcohol content. CPI(M) Politburo member and opposition leader V.S. Achuthanandan, who is the architect of the project, gave out samples at a press conference, albeit apologetically, saying, "I know most of you guys need real stuff, not a health drink!" A different peg might work better.

-M.G. Radhakrishnan

OPPOSITE RIVALRY: Achutanandan

Like any good Malayalee communist, V.S. Achutanandan must abhor all things American. Even so, there's an expression used in Uncle Sam's land that he would do well to acquaint himself with: double whammy. First, the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) lost the 2001 assembly elections in Kerala. Achutanandan, all set to become chief minister, found instead the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) entering office.

Having lost the chief minister's job to A.K. Antony was bad enough. Now Achutanandan, the joke goes, is in danger of losing his job as leader of the Opposition too. His position as a critic of the UDF regime has been usurped by K. Karunakaran, Antony's long-standing Congress rival. The Congressman is keeping the government on its toes, leaving Achutanandan and his fellow travellers twiddling their thumbs. Ol' Achutanandan has taken it half-sportingly. His flunkies joke he is going to file a public-interest petition seeking to restrain Karunakaran from carrying out the duties of the leader of the Opposition. With his luck, the petition will be thrown out of court.

DIED: Pandit C.R. Vyas, 78, classical vocalist.

AWARDED: The 2002 Oliver E. Buckley Prize, by the American Physical Society, to India-born scientist Jainendra Jain.

DIED: Ashok Patel, police officer who set up a counter intelligence network in the Kashmir Valley in the early 1990s.

DIED: Vithabai Mang Narayangaonkar, 74, folk art dancer, in Pune.

FORMED: The Rashtravadi Ekta Morcha, by former prime minister Chandra Shekhar, NCP chief Sharad Pawar and Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy.

APPOINTED: Suma Chakrabarti, 42, as one of the UK's permanent secretaries, the first Asian bureaucrat and the youngest to be promoted to the rank.

AWARDED: An honourary degree from Oxford University, to historian Romila Thapar.