CHANDIGARH: With less than five months left for the 2027 Punjab assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced a 12-day, 4,000-kilometre 'Nasha Mukt Punjab Yatra' starting from September 18.
The yatra will cover all 117 assembly constituencies under the slogan 'Bhajpa Da Naara, Nasha Mukauna Saara ', with the saffron party seeking to flag drug abuse, law and order and governance as key issues in its political campaign.
The party also proposed that if voted to power, it will set up an anti-drug intelligence grid that would bring the Punjab Police and intelligence agencies on one platform.
It also highlighted that drugs are being sold like toffees in the state and nacro terrorism is a part of the strategy of the deep state of Pakistan.
BJP national president Nitin Nabin will flag off the first yatra from Ekta Sthal in Madhopur, Sujanpur, in Pathankot district, on September 18.
The venue is near the memorial of Syama Prasad Mookerjee, founder of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah will address a rally in Jalandhar on September 30 to mark the conclusion of the yatra.
BJP National vice-president Manpreet Badal said that the war against drugs could not be won merely by registering FIRs against addicts and peddlers, adding that the focus has to shift to rehabilitation.
He said the real fight lay in breaking the drug network by following the money trail rather than chasing the drug packet.
Badal said that there is no dearth of slogans in the state as far as the campaign against drugs is concerned, but the state lacks real strategy.
"This drug menace has ruined the young generation of the state and the economy. The productive years are lost in this menace; it is not just a loss for parents but for the country as well,’’ he said.
"The population of the state is 2 per cent of the country, but 9 per cent of the personnel in the Army are from Punjab. From Independence till Operation Sindoor, Punjab has received the maximum medals; it is the most decorated state in the country. Our enemy is not the youth but the mafia, which is earning profit from selling drugs. The BJP does not dispute the figures given by the government that 77,000 FIRs were registered or 25,000 addicts are under treatment. But we await the outcome. Our yatra should not be considered as a political yatra but as a social, cultural and economic one,’’ he said.
Badal said that there is a three-point strategy of the party to eliminate drugs. "This drug mafia is a business; one has to attack this business. You have to follow the money and not the packet. The party will propose to set up a Punjab Intelligence Grid which will have Punjab Police, National Crime Bureau, BSF, customs, Income Tax, religious institutions such as gurdwaras and temples, rehabilitation experts such as doctors, social organisations, schools, industries, ‘’ he said.
Badal described it as a holistic approach to tackle the problem.
He further added that the drug menace in Punjab is a security concern for the country. "We have to fight on many fronts, making a strong strategy: a multi-pronged approach. By 2029, Home Minister Amit Shah has said to eradicate drugs across the state,’’ Badal said.
Badal said, "Punjab is a victim of its geography."
Punjab BJP president Kewal Singh Dhillon said the yatra would go beyond drug awareness and highlight what he termed Punjab’s three biggest challenges — the spread of drugs, deteriorating law and order, and corruption, which he alleged extended from tehsil, police stations to the Chief Minister’s Office.
He said the drug crisis threatened Punjabiyat, the state’s culture and values, and the legacy of the land of the Gurus.
Families, particularly mothers and sisters, were bearing the brunt of the crisis, he said, alleging that youth traditionally known for their contribution to the armed forces and sports were being pushed towards addiction.
Dhillon added that the drug menace is fuelling crime and gang violence and forcing families into debt or the sale of land to meet treatment expenses.
"The drugs are easily available across the state like toffees, and now even home delivery has started; if one orders drugs, they reach one’s home faster than a pizza,’’ he alleged.
He said that Congress and AAP had no concrete plan to eradicate the drug menace in the state, but the BJP has a track to eradicate drugs menace and gangsters. We have to remove unemployment, and thus industries have to be set up in the state,’’ said Dhillon and accused the AAP Government of harassing those who questioned its alleged failure to curb drugs.
Asking questions was fundamental to democracy, he said, alleging that the AAP government was behaving like a “dictatorship” by targeting critics instead of answering them.
Former state president Sunil Jakhar said the practice of administering substitute drugs to wean addicts off their addiction had not proved fruitful. He said the youth needed to be gainfully employed to keep them away from drugs.
