Party hopes to turn heat on AAP govt, ride on Shah’s “tough image” to offer itself as alternative, and leave old association with the Akalis behind

THE BJP is hoping to kill several birds with one stone as Union Home Minister Amit Shah flags off a ‘Nasha Mukti Yatra’ to cover all the 117 Assembly constituencies of Punjab next month.

Announcing the yatra recently, BJP Punjab affairs in-charge Vijay Rupani said the march, which will start from Amritsar, is meant “to save the youth of Punjab from the river of drugs”.

The visit of Shah, who as Union Home Minister heads the agencies working on the drugs menace, coincides with raised tempers in the state in the wake of the storming of a police station by the radical pro-Khalistan leader, Amritpal Singh. Among the issues that Singh has used to rally a following is the unchecked flow of drugs into the state.

Apart from the Amritpal issue, parties in the state are on the edge over allegations by former Punjab Police DSP-turned-activist Balwinder Singh Sekhon, who is currently in jail, over the involvement of big names in the drug trade.

The drug problem in Punjab is a sensitive issue for the AAP, as it had captured the public imagination in the state by promising to tackle it, particularly after the Akali Dal faced allegations of the involvement of its top leaders in the trade.

Complimenting Governor’s visits

While Shah will visit next month, Punjab Governor Banwari Lal Purohit has held several “tours” of border areas of Punjab to take stock of operations against drug smuggling – a move flayed by the Bhagwant Mann government as going beyond his brief. During one of his visits this month, encouraging villagers to set up local committees to tackle drug smugglers, Purohit told media persons: “Drugs have made their way into schools. Children are becoming addicts. Parents are feeling helpless. Some addicted children are stealing from their own homes. The situation is such that villagers told me drugs are being sold like ration at grocery shops.”

Purohit has also been holding meetings with state and central government agencies on the drug issue.

Eye on 2024

The BJP is seen as a party to the spike in the drug crisis in the state, having been a part of the Punjab government from 2007 to 2017 as an alliance partner with the Akali Dal. With the Akalis snapping ties with it over the farm laws issue, the BJP has got a chance to distance itself from the drugs taint.

On the other hand, it’s the AAP which is on the defensive now, after the release of senior Akali leader and former minister Bikram Singh Majitha on bail in an NDPS case that had been registered by the former Congress government. If the promised big fish have been difficult to net, the AAP government has also failed to check drug casualties on the ground.

The BJP believes that with both the Congress and Akalis failing to provide succour, Punjab could be willing to bank on Amit Shah’s “tough image”.

Changing the narrative

The BJP realises that questions could be raised on the Shah-led Home Ministry’s failure in checking the drug inflow, despite the BSF and Narcotics Control Bureau being under his direct control. The government’s decision to increase the area of BSF jurisdiction to 50 km inside the border has also failed to make much impact on drug smuggling.

Amritpal, in fact, has been more critical of the Centre on the issue, as is arrested former DSP Sekhon, who has questioned some key appointments in central agencies including the National Investigation Agency.

The BJP yatra is a reassurance to voters that the party is very much conscious of the problem, despite having inducted several leaders from other parties who are accused of failing to end the nexus.

Gujarat ‘connection’

Authorities have repeatedly found that the drugs landing in Punjab arrived first at Gujarat ports, with several sensational seizures recently cementing that opinion. This is hardly good news for the BJP, which sells the Gujarat model, as exemplified by the duo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah (who led the state for more than a decade).

During a visit ahead of the Gujarat elections last year, Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal had talked of drugs entering Gujarat in large quantities and being smuggled to Punjab and other parts of the country, and said the people believed that the administration at the top was complicit.