Rahul Gandhi blames Akalis for drug problem

In an aggressive attempt to attack the Akalis on the drug menace issue in Punjab, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Monday blamed them for not accepting the truth. Addressing a dharna organised by the Congress in Jalandhar, he said, “If Punjab needs a better future, there is no other way but to wipe out the drug menace. They (the Akalis), particularly deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, mocked me for highlighting the problem among youth in 2012. Not 70 per cent, but 78 per cent of Punjab’s youth is hooked to drugs.”

Mr Gandhi said that besides drugs, lawlessness and unemployment were other problems the state faced. “The Punjab government is not ready to accept that there is a drug problem and then it wants Udta Punjab, a film that highlights the issue, banned,” he said.

Rahul Gandhi had agreed to take part in the dharna upon a request by Punjab Congress president Capt. Amarinder Singh to give the party a boost in the runup to the elections by raking up the drug issue.

“Amarinderji said that if the Congress came to power, the drug problem would be curbed in a month because we intend to give more powers to the police,” Mr Gandhi said, adding that the police needed to be empowered to fight the drug mafia.

He claimed that the Akalis were not allowing the police a free hand to fight the problem.

“There are good police officers in the Punjab police who want to work, but the Shiromani Akali Dal government is not giving them the required freedom to function. The police here have successfully fought militancy,” he said.

“If the Congress forms the government in Punjab, it will bring a law to impound the property of drug peddlers and distribute it among the needy youth. We will recover the drug money from peddlers by selling their property.”