Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann Slams BJP Over Drug Crisis, Demands Answers

CHANDIGARH: Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday hit out at the BJP and , challenging them to explain their failure to curb drug trafficking during their years in power instead of exploiting Punjab’s drug crisis and the grief of bereaved families for electoral gains. He questioned the Centre’s failure to stop narcotics at their source, secure the borders and act against trafficking networks. He also sought answers over the reported case involving 2,200 kg of heroin in Gujarat, which was allegedly explained away as having been eaten by rats, and pointed to gangster links spanning BJP-ruled Haryana and Rajasthan in connection with a firing incident involving a Bollywood actor in Mumbai. Addressing the media, Mann said, “Union Home Minister Amit Shah is welcome to visit Punjab whenever he wants. But the BJP is propagating that it has come to save Punjab and make it drug-free. I have a few questions for the Home Minister. When your government was in power in partnership with the Akali Dal from 2007 to 2017, and the problem of drugs grew into a major crisis, with drugs arriving in quantities running into quintals, why were you not concerned about saving Punjab then? Why did you not take action?” He said demands for a CBI investigation into then minister Bikram Singh Majithia had repeatedly been raised during that period, but no such investigation was ordered because the Akali Dal was the BJP’s alliance partner. He further questioned why the BJP-led government at the Centre had failed to act when major drug traffickers allegedly named influential ministers and political figures.