Punjab: Terror & drugs

Punjab is back in the headlines with a brutality reminiscent of the violent Eighties. In the early hours of July 27, three gunmen dressed in Army uniforms struck at Gurdaspur. They attacked a bus carrying 75 passengers, and then stormed a police station in Dinanagar, a town barely 20 kilometres from the India-Pakistan border. The terrorists killed seven persons, including a superintendent of police, before being shot down after a 12-hour gunfight.

Put it down to irony — just a couple of weeks ago, Punjab’s deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal had claimed that Punjab is the most “peaceful” state in the country and there was no “threat of terrorism”.

Investigators are at work. We don’t have all the details yet. But what is glaringly obvious is that Punjab needs to shed its complacency on more than one front. A media report says investigators are examining the possible role of cross-border drug cartels in providing the terrorists critical infor-mation. It is no secret that the state has a humongous narcotics problem; it is no secret that the situation is get-ting worse, not better.

In recent years, innumerable media reports and academic studies have pointed to social distress ravaging Punjab, once the fastest-growing state in the country. The most disturbing development has been the massive rise in substance abuse and addiction to drugs. The reasons are many — the state’s declining agricultural economy, growing unemployment and the travails of rural life. Punjab’s alienated youth has turned to drugs.

In the last two decades, the pattern of drug use has undergone a change in favour of new narcotic and synthetic drugs. Last December, Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself acknowledged the serious drug problem in Punjab during his Mann Ki Baat programme on All-India Radio. That did not go down very well with the Shiromani Akali Dal government in Punjab, a Bharatiya Janata Party ally.

But with terror casting its shadow on Punjab and large swathes of the country on high alert, it is time to shed niceties; it is time to be blunt. It is hardly a secret that most of the drugs originate in Afghanistan, are smuggled through Pakistan and then through India to Europe and North America. It is also well known that drug addiction rises alarmingly at all points along this smuggling route. This has happened throughout the world and Punjab is no exception.

Arguably, the current state government is neither solely nor wholly responsible for this drug menace. But clearly, it has not stepped up to the plate. The remedies are well known — a combination of strict, honest policing, rehabilitation of addicts and, most importantly, the political will to take on drugs and cartels. Instead of starting on the remedies in earnest, the political slugfest over drugs has continued unabated. The state passes the buck on to the Centre. The Centre hides behind platitudes. Leaders of rival political parties challenge one another to undergo dope tests to prove their innocence.

Using drug abuse to score political points has to stop. There is clearly a governance issue here. Can a state fighting terror allow itself to remain in the throes of a sweeping drug addiction?

Consider some alarming facts that are in the public domain. Punjab accounted for almost half of all cases registered in India under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS) in 2013; 67 per cent of rural households in Punjab have one drug or alcohol addict. Punjab also topped the list of highest drug seizures during the 2014 polls, according to the Election Commission.

Most worryingly, Shashi Kant, a retired Indian Police Service officer, has claimed in a petition before the Punjab and Haryana high court that major political parties are hand-in-glove with drug smugglers and that Punjab is currently witnessing the era of “Narco Politics”.

Chandigarh-based lawyer Navkiran Singh told this writer that there are also attempts to scuttle investigations by transferring key officials just as a probe gets to a critical stage. There are allegations and counter-allegations about the collusion of politicians and the police in the drugs trade. Confronted with criticism over large-scale substance abuse in Punjab, chief minister Parkash Singh Badal says the state government is fighting the “nation’s war” against drug abuse.

Drug abuse was a key issue in Punjab during the 2014 elections. The Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party slammed the Akali Dal-BJP government of not only turning a blind eye to the problem but allegedly patronising the trafficking, thus jeopardising an entire generation in the state.

Drugs come from outside India, the chief minister does not tire of pointing out; Punjab does not make it. The Akali government says that to tackle drug abuse, it has been demanding complete sealing of the international border, and a ban on cultivation of narcotics in states like Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

Perhaps the most shameful connection between drugs and Punjab’s political system came to light in January 2014, when a police officer-turned-drug lord named Jagdish Singh Bhola was arrested in a synthetic drugs haul case. Mr Bhola alleged that Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia — who is Punjab’s revenue minister and the brother-in-law of deputy chief minister Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal — was involved in the drug racket.

At the moment, the high court of Punjab and Haryana is hearing a petition in the case. But there are indications that the investigation into the multi-crore money-laundering and international drug racket is at risk of being derailed. The Enforcement Directorate is now carrying out the investigation. A petition in the High Court says key officials involved in the probe are sought to be transferred and the officials are being intimidated through phone calls.

After Mr Majithia was summoned by the ED for questioning, the state BJP leadership demanded that he resign from his post in the Cabinet. Unsurprisingly, Mr Majithia denies the charges. The wrangling between the two constituents of the country’s ruling National Democratic Alliance goes on.

Every policeman and everyone else with even a passing acquaintance with these issues knows that drug smugglers and terrorists form the cosiest of partnerships. If this turmoil and terror is not to enter Punjab in a bigger way again, the “narco-terror” nexus has to be broken. The blame-game and buck-passing must stop and authorities have to start acting in earnest. At stake is the future of Punjab and India.

The writer focuses on development issues in India and emerging economies.
She can be reached at patralekha.chatterjee@gmail.com