Gujarat is a dry State, so drink after paying a bribe!
The best of intentions on the part of the Government come a cropper when you have corrupt officials out to milk the system. Take the case of Gujarat where prohibition is in force. With Gujaratis sprinkled across the world, it goes without saying that they must be visiting their home State once in a while. Unfortunately, not many are aware that visitors from outside Gujarat are provided a free permit by the government for alcohol consumption and purchase, which is valid for a month. And here lies the golden opportunity for airport officials or cops. One of our respondents, a Green card holder in the US from India, was forced to pay a ten-dollar bribe to an airport staffer at Mumbai who took him to the office where the permit was issued free of cost. He writes that it was his first visit to his motherland in 28 years. “I was so excited to come back to my country and my first experience was a bribe,” he writes (http://www.ipaidabribe.com/bribe-central/bribe-paid-alcohol-permit-mumbai-airport).
Another of our respondents speaks of the bottle of Indian whisky he bought at Diu to gift his US-based friends. He had to pass through Gujarat where cops caught him. After subjecting him to a lecture “on the evils of drinking alcohol in Bapu’s State,” they threatened to lock up the individual. The passport of the individual was seized and a junior cop asked him to cough up Rs 2,500 (http://www.ipaidabribe.com/bribe-central/border-police-taking-bribe-allow-alcohol-gujarat). After the bribe payment, the cops let him pass.