Stop making Punjab the scapegoat: AAP hits back at Amit Shah over drugs
The Aam Aadmi Party on Wednesday hit back at Union Home Minister Amit Shah after his Nasha Mukt Punjab Yatra rally, asking him to stop using Punjab "as a political target" and answer questions about drug networks and investigations elsewhere in the country. The Punjab Congress also criticised Shah, saying the BJP-led Centre had woken up to Punjab's drug problem as elections draw closer and calling his December 2029 deadline to end the menace "like a long post-dated cheque of a crashing bank".
The responses came after Shah, speaking at Paragpur in Jalandhar at the end of the BJP's Nasha Mukt Punjab Yatra, accused the AAP government of allowing the trade in 'chitta', or synthetic drugs, to continue openly. He said the BJP would make Punjab free from the drug problem by December 2029 if it was voted to power in the 2027 Assembly polls.
In a statement, the AAP said, "The BJP should stop defaming Punjab on drugs and start acting against drugs coming from BJP-ruled states across the country." It said Punjab should not be made a scapegoat and that the fight against drugs must be a coordinated national effort.
Pointing to a drug seizure by the Gujarat ATS and the Indian Coast Guard on the same day as Shah's anti-drug campaign in Punjab, the AAP said the recovery had again put the focus on drug routes operating through Gujarat. "Amit Shah came to Punjab today to give lectures on drugs. At the same time, 526 kilograms of methamphetamine and heroin, worth over Rs 3,000 crore, have been seized in an operation in which Gujarat ATS provided the intelligence. We have been saying that Gujarat has emerged as a major gateway for drugs in the country. This seizure once again shows the scale of the problem. If Amit Shah is serious about 'Nasha Mukt Bharat', he should start his 'Nasha Mukt Yatra' from Gujarat, not Punjab," the statement said.
The party said the Bhagwant Mann government had already broken the supply chain networks of drug peddlers and that they were fleeing to neighbouring BJP-ruled states. It also claimed that around 80 per cent of the pharmaceutical tablets and capsules available in Punjab originated outside the state, with consignments linked to Gujarat, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and other states.
The AAP said, "The old Pakistan route is no longer the excuse Amit Shah can keep using. Punjab Police has disrupted cross-border supply and is now dealing with an interstate drug network. If drugs are coming to Punjab from other states, Amit Shah should ask the governments of those states what they are doing. Instead, he comes to Punjab and turns the drug issue into a political campaign." It also asked why the BJP's anti-drug campaign began and ended with Punjab when major drug seizures continued elsewhere.
Raising further questions, the party said, "If Amit Shah wants a 'Nasha Mukt Bharat', he should answer: Why are massive consignments being intercepted on the western maritime route? Why are pharmaceutical drugs entering Punjab from other states? What action is being taken against interstate suppliers? What happened to the Central investigation into the Rs 6,000 crore drug case? These are the questions Amit Shah should answer instead of giving speeches against Punjab." It added, "Punjab is not asking for lectures, but a coordinated national fight against drugs. Stop making Punjab the scapegoat. Stop protecting political allies from uncomfortable questions. And stop pretending that the drug problem begins and ends at Punjab's border. If Amit Shah is serious, he should act wherever the evidence leads, including Gujarat and the interstate networks supplying drugs to Punjab."
State Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring also targeted the Centre, alleging that it had turned a blind eye to Punjab's drug problem during the AAP's rule. "Now that elections are round the corner, Shah has woken up to the problem of drugs in Punjab," Warring said.
Warring also questioned Shah's deadline to end the drug problem. "Leave aside Punjab, who knows whether the BJP will be in power at the Centre by then, since in all likelihood it will not," he said, adding, "It is like a long post-dated cheque of a crashing bank." He said that while the AAP government was responsible for failing to control the supply and peddling of drugs in Punjab, the Government of India had also failed to maintain oversight. He further said the Centre had not taken visible and effective steps to stop cross-border drug smuggling through drones.
The political exchange followed Shah's rally in Jalandhar, where he promised action against drugs in Punjab, and drew sharp responses from both the AAP and the Congress, which said the focus should be on a wider national crackdown on drug supply routes and interstate networks.- Ends
