Seeing the drugs issue attaining large proportions in Punjab, the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has decided to launch a campaign to eradicate drugs from India.
With the main Opposition parties, including the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party, and SAD’s ally Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), taking on the Akali Dal for the alleged involvement of its leaders in the drug mafia, the party has decided to organise four massive dharnas on the international border on January 5 to pressurise the Border Security Force (BSF) to stop drugs trafficking from across the border. The SAD, since long, is in tight spot with names of its several leaders, including Cabinet Minister Bikram Singh Majithia, and Chief Parliamentary Secretary Avinash Chander besides local leaders, surfaced during the investigations in the multi-crore drug case, that rocked the State early this year.
Both Majithia and Chander have appeared before the Enforcement Directorate for questioning in the matter. Already, senior Akali leader Sarwan Singh Phillaur has stepped down as Cabinet Minister for alleged involvement of his son in the matter. The BJP, other than the Congress and the AAP, has long been pressurising Chander and Majithia to step down from the Government posts. That is not all! All the parties in the State, including the SAD’s coalition partner BJP, has embraced the drugs issue to be used against the Akali Dal in the State, blaming it for the ever-increasing menace.
The issue was further highlighted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who in his radio programme mentioned Punjab as a badly drug-hit State. The SAD, which has always blamed the central agencies for its failure to control drug smuggling from across the border in the State during the Congress regime, has once again blamed it on the Centre. “The four dharnas would be held on Attari international border, at the Sadki check post at Fazilka, Hussainiwala international border and on the Gurdaspur international border,” announced SAD president and Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal on Sunday.
He said: “Punjab and the nation are suffering from the ill effects of narco-terrorism due to continuous smuggling of narcotics from Pakistan into Punjab through the international border. The border is guarded by the BSF which is a Central agency over which we do not have any control. This smuggling must stop and the border with Pakistan must be completely sealed. Then only can we fight a national war against drugs.” Maintaining that all dharnas would be 100 per cent peaceful, Sukhbir said that Punjabis felt it was necessary to congregate on the border as they were being branded as drug addicts despite waging the nation’s fight against drugs.