CHANDIGARH: Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal, Punjab Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) working president Ashwani Sharma and Radha Soami Satsang Beas chief Baba Gurinder Singh Dhillon on Tuesday joined the anti-drug awareness walk in Ferozepur led by Punjab Governor Gulab Chand Kataria.
On the other hand, Congress and Aam Aadmi Party leaders were not present at the event. The BJP and SAD top brass had been keeping a distance ever since the alliance of both parties broke in 2020 over the farmers' protest. Speculation is now rife over a potential SAD-BJP alliance ahead of the 2027 assembly elections.
The participation of dera chief Dhillon is significant given its influence across the Malwa region and the border belt. On February 2, Dhillon met SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia in Nabha jail and called him "a friend and a relative", dismissing drug-related allegations against him as “false and baseless”. Interestingly, the next day the Supreme Court granted bail to Majithia who was accused of amassing over Rs 540 crore through drug money laundering as part of a disproportionate assets (DA) case.
Organized with the objective of restoring Punjab’s vibrant spirit and eliminating drug abuse, the awareness walk commenced from Saragarhi Gurudwara Sahib and culminated at the School of Eminence, Ferozepur. Prior to the walk, the Governor paid obeisance at Saragarhi Gurudwara Sahib and formally flagged off the anti-drug campaign.
Dhillon also visited BJP leader Rana Gurmeet Sodhi’s house, where he stayed for an hour, suggesting an outreach by the dera toward both the Akalis and the saffron party. A closed door meeting was reportedly held, said sources.
While Dhillon and Sharma flanked Kataria during the entire stretch of the walk, Badal joined the event during the end of the programme and did not come face to face with Sharma.
Dismissing past anti-drug campaigns by governments, as "years of inaction and tokenism", Badal said that the SAD was committed to wiping out the menace of drug trafficking and gangsters in Punjab once it formed the government in 2027 even as he appreciated the initiative taken by Kataria to lead a campaign to make Punjab drug free.
"The Governor has understood the pulse of the people and is travelling from village to village and city to city to create a movement against this menace," he said. He also asserted that it was even more laudable that the Governor had taken on the responsibility to lead this campaign in the face of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government’s failure to tackle it. "I also thank the Governor for inviting leaders from all parties and social organizations and educational institutions to make this a mass movement," he said.
Badal alleged that a genuine effort could not be taken to eradicate the menace of drugs during the last nine years because both the Congress and AAP played politics over the issue. “Capt Amarinder Singh took a false oath on the holy ‘gutka sahib’ to eradicate this menace in four weeks while Arvind Kejriwal said he would take a few months,” he said.
Leading the awareness walk himself, Kataria called upon all sections of society to unite in the fight against drugs. He stated that drug abuse not only destroys individuals but also causes irreparable damage to society, and stressed that only collective and sustained efforts can eradicate this social evil from its roots. Dhillon also visited BJP leader Rana Gurmeet Sodhi’s house, where he stayed for an hour, suggesting an outreach by the dera toward both the Akalis and the saffron party.
Addressing a large gathering at the School of Eminence after the walk, Kataria underlined the need to make educational institutions drug-free on priority. He said that the future of the state can be secured only when its youth are guided onto the right path. While noting that the Punjab government is implementing a phase-wise anti-drug campaign, he emphasized that its success depends on the active participation of educational institutions, religious bodies, social organizations, political parties, panchayats and the general public.
Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring questioned if the walk was a facade for political realignment, suggesting that Kataria was trying to help the SAD and its leader Sukhbir Singh Badal to revive its alliance with the BJP through the “march against drugs”. As the “antidrug campaign unfolds”, it looks like CPR is being done on the dying Shiromani Akali Dal ahead of the assembly elections in the state, he remarked.
Warring asked on ‘X’, "My humble question to Punjab Governor Kataria is whether the march he is leading against drugs is actually a campaign against drugs or an attempt to run the ‘Samjhuta Express’ and prepare ground for forging Akali-BJP alliance in the state.”
Meanwhile, the ruling AAP kept a distance from the event, with no minister or MLA joining the walk. An AAP leader on condition of anonymity said, "It was the politicisation of a campaign backed by a constitutional office.”