Facing strident criticism over large-scale substance abuse in Punjab, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Friday said that the State Government was fighting the ‘nation’s war’ against drug abuse.
“We have suffered a lot of pain in the past. First, it was of partition, then militancy. Earlier we were labeled as terrorists and now they call us drug addicts,” an anguished Chief Minister told the Indian diaspora at the 13th Pravasi Bhartiya Divas event. Terming drug addiction a “national problem just like militancy”, Badal said: “We are waging the nation’s war against drugs. Drugs come from outside, we don’t make it in Punjab. We have caught drugs coming into India from other States as well.”