Amidst opposition on its decision to hold "dharnas" on international borders with Pakistan in Punjab, the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Wednesday made it clear that "dharnas" on January 5 should "not be misconstrued against Border Security Force (BSF) or any other Government agency".
The proposed sit-in by the party must not be misconstrued against any Government agency rather it is against drug menace in the State, said the Chief Minister and SAD patron Parkash Singh Badal on Wednesday while interacting with the media on the sidelines of a programme. Badal said: "The proposed protest of the SAD is against the curse of drugs in the State and not against the BSF or any other Government agency."
In a climb down from its stance over the proposed dharna early next month, the SAD on Tuesday had stated that the sit-in near the borders was "to create awareness on drugs rather than to put pressure on the BSF to stop entry of drugs from Pakistan side". SAD would now hold dharnas at three places which would precede an anti-drug campaign, which BJP president Amit Shah is set to begin on January 12. Badal on Wednesday said that the State was not only fighting the war of the nation but also of the world against drugs as Punjab was on the transit route of the drugs supplied across the globe from international border.
He blamed "some forces inimical to the interests of Punjab" for tarnishing the image of Punjabis and said that "rather than helping the state to confront this crisis some forces inimical to the interests of Punjab were hell bent upon tarnishing its image by branding the brave Punjabis as drug peddlers". At the same time, the party avowed to "completely eliminating" drugs from Punjab as a mission. SAD president and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal advocated the need to seal the international borders completely like US-Mexico borders.
Sukhbir, presiding over a meeting of party office bearers from Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Gurdaspur, Pathankot, Jalandhar, Nawanshahr, Hoshiarpur and Kapurthala to chalk out the program of dharna to be organised at Attari border on January 5, said that wiping out drugs should be our top mission in the New Year. Ruing that Punjab was being defamed as a den of drugs, he said: "We want to bring truth before the country that Punjab is not cultivating or producing any drugs and these are being produced in Afghanistan, Pakistan and some other states of our own country."
Sukhbir, pointing fingers at the BSF and central forces, said that the cross border inflow of drugs should be dealt strictly by completely plugging the international borders. "Our borders should be sealed like United States has done with its border with Mexico to plug the inflow of drugs," he said, adding that international borders should be equipped with ultramodern gadgets to get rid of this menace. Talking about BSF, Sukhbir said that this force was very much competent to plug the flow of drugs and "SAD has no suspicion or accusation against it but it should increase its surveillance. International border should be equipped with CCTVs cameras, sensors liberally by using ultramodern technologies".