Why Old Monk Is Out Of Shelves In Restaurants In Mumbai

Walk into any Mumbai restaurant, club or bar these days and ask for an Old Monk. The waiter’s face will tell you the story before the words do. The iconic dark rum that once defined monsoon evenings, army canteens and late-night addas has quietly vanished from many shelves. The reason is not a supply-chain glitch. It is Tukaram Mundhe. The 2005-batch IAS officer, Maharashtra’s Food and Drug Administration Commissioner and the man the public now calls “Singham,” has been busy. After more than two decades and 25 transfers that never managed to dilute his spine, Mundhe took charge of the FDA in May and decided public health would no longer be negotiable. Elite clubs that once felt untouchable; Cricket Club of India, MIG Cricket Club in Bandra, Willingdon Sports Club and several other high-end and government-linked establishments, suddenly found their food license suspended. Besides, adulterated milk and synthetic paneer has also come under his glare. Now the net has tightened around liquor standards as well. Certain Old Monk variants, along with a few other popular spirits, ran into FSSAI rules on artificial flavouring and misleading age claims. Maharashtra FDA, under Mundhe, is enforcing those rules without apology. The result is visible on every bar counter: the monk is missing. Mundhe’s style is blunt, consistent and free of the usual bureaucratic theatre. He has made food safety a public conversation instead of a file note. In a city that thrives on shortcuts, an officer who refuses to look away is rare. The empty Old Monk shelf is not a crisis. It is a sign that, for once, someone is actually doing the job. Mumbai is eating and drinking a little more carefully. That is a wonderful start.