‘Missed deadlines’ vs ‘past failure’: BJP, AAP spar over Punjab drug crisis - The Indian Express

The BJP’s Nasha Mukt Punjab Yatra has triggered a fresh political war of words in Punjab, with Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann questioning the party’s record during its 2007-2017 alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD). The saffron party has hit back by invoking the AAP government’s missed deadlines to eradicate illegal drugs.

The BJP launched its 13-day campaign in Pathankot on Friday, with four parallel yatras covering nearly 4,000 km and the majority of the Assembly constituencies before converging in Jalandhar on September 30.

Addressing an organisational meeting in Ludhiana on Saturday, Mann took a direct swipe at the BJP’s campaign. “Pehlan 2007-2017 tak Akali Dal nal mil ke nasha faleyaya, phir 2017-2022 tak Captain ne vadayaya. (First they, in alliance with the SAD, spread drugs from 2007-2017 and later Captain Amarinder Singh further increased it in 2017-2022),” Mann alleged.

“First of all, they must try to control drug addiction and supplies in BJP-ruled states like Rajasthan, Gujarat, and even national capital Delhi,” the AAP leader said.

“They should check their own ports, especially the Mundra port of Gujarat, from where drugs are coming and worth thousands of crores are even being seized,” Mann added.

State BJP president Kewal Singh Dhillon rejected Mann’s allegations. “At the Mundra port or in Rajasthan, the DRI (Directorate of Revenue Intelligence) is there to seize the stuff, but drugs haven’t reached the households of Gujarat like in Punjab. Before coming to power, the AAP supremo set a two-month deadline to eradicate drugs from the state, and later Bhagwant Mann and Arvind Kejriwal kept on extending the deadlines, which have not finished even now,” he said in Fatehgarh Sahib.

Union minister Arjun Ram Meghwal, who was in Fazilka on Sunday to flag off the third leg of the Nasha Mukt Yatra, also targeted the Mann government. He accused the state government of promoting addiction instead of eradicating the drug menace.

“If anyone informs the police about drug availability, they are punished rather than the suppliers,” the BJP leader said.

He added, “I have met the families in Fazilka and was pained to see their grief. They want drug supplies to be stopped in Punjab. However, rivals are looking at it with a political lens. No doubt the BJP is organising the yatra, but it is a social cause… So it is time to rise above politics and make Punjab Nasha Mukt.”

Dyal Singh, a middle-aged man from Fazilka who met Meghwal, said, “My 19-year-old died due to addiction. Drugs are available for free in urban as well as rural areas. The youth need to be saved, and something needs to be done to control this menace.”

Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, who was in Fatehgarh Sahib on Saturday for the second leg of the yatra, also referred to her interaction with families affected by drug addiction. She said, “I met with many affected families Saturday morning who told me that drugs reach faster than the delivery of any product via Blinkit.”

H S Phoolka, a human rights activist and BJP leader, while responding to Mann’s claim, said, “If the Punjab CM is saying that drugs are coming from Mundra port, why do those drugs not find any client in Gujarat or Rajasthan but in Punjab only? The fact is that the AAP government has made Punjab a mandi of nasha (market of illegal drugs), where smugglers get protection and informers get harassed.”

The BJP’s counter-offensive came amid protests and disruptions around the yatra since its launch.

On Friday, former Union minister Ravneet Singh Bittu’s cavalcade came under attack near Batala while he was travelling towards Pathankot for the yatra. He alleged that eggs and tomatoes were thrown at his convoy. On Saturday, he protested against Mann in Ludhiana over the previous day’s incident.

Posters opposing the BJP’s yatra appeared in Pathankot, while some AAP workers showed black flags and raised slogans when the yatra passed through Dinanagar. Alleged AAP workers also showed black flags during the yatra’s passage through Fatehgarh Sahib and Samrala on Saturday.

BJP leader Dhillon said, “They are tearing our posters. Let me tell you all: you tear our one poster and we will paste 10 more. The ones who are protesting against this Nasha Mukt Yatra, which is a social cause, are the ones who actually support the drug mafia. Affected people will never oppose it.”

Dhillon added, “We are not scared of such tactics. The yatra will continue and it will spread like a people’s movement.”

Senior BJP leader Parminder Singh Brar said the attacks on the yatra show who the supporters of the drug mafia are.

He added that the panel’s report titled Drug Abuse among Young Persons: Problems and Solutions also found that 7 lakh children aged 10–17 years are drug addicts.

State AAP president and minister Aman Arora questioned the BJP why it could not control the drug menace when it shared power with the SAD in the state.

The BJP campaign has largely focused on the AAP government and its unfulfilled promises and ignored previous Punjab governments’ role.

State Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, meanwhile, questioned the BJP-led Centre over the smuggling of large quantities of drugs into India, particularly through Punjab’s borders, and argued that responsibility ultimately lies with Union Home Minister Amit Shah, whose ministry controls the Border Security Force. He also described the BJP as the “B team of AAP” in the state.

The SAD, however, has so far not reacted to the BJP’s yatra.