Chandigarh : December 26, 2014
It all began with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Mann ki Baat a couple of weeks ago, in which he singled out Punjab for the drug menace. “I have come across helpless and angry mothers in Punjab” he said, “The bullets that hit our soldiers is backed by drug money.” Anger against drugs runs deep in the Punjab countryside. The BJP, with its largely urban following, is for the first time eyeing rural Punjab. It sees the drug issue as the vehicle which can take it there. It was the AAP which capitalised on the issue and won a surprise four Lok Sabha constituencies in Punjab. A senior BJP leader pointed out, “If new entrant AAP could penetrate Sikh villages by taking up this issue, why can’t we do it?” Punjab BJP leaders have announced that party president Amit Shah will begin a campaign against drugs from Amritsar on January 12, and a march that touches 6,000 villages will be held. The ruling SAD, sharing power with the BJP in Punjab, immediately retaliated by asking the central government to stop the flow of drugs into the state from across the border as well as neighbouring states. Within days of this, the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is investigating a multi-crore drug money laundering racket, issued a summons to question Bikram Singh Majithia, Punjab’s Revenue Minister and brother of Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal. The ED had reportedly prepared a detailed questionnaire for Majithia last month. Majithia will be questioned at Jalandhar on Friday. An unusually assertive state BJP, led by its State President Kamal Sharma, and National Secretary Tarun Chugh and National Secretary BJP Kisan Morcha Sukhminderpal Singh Grewal promptly demanded Majithia’s resignation on moral grounds. With the Akalis supporting Majithia and Badal refusing to ask him to resign, ties between an already strained alliance became more frosty. But when the opposition Congress sought to capitalise on the open rift between the two, and pushed for a no-confidence motion on the issue in the Assembly, the two allies stood together to defeat the motion. Notwithstanding this, the party is still firm on its demand for Majithia’s resignation.
It all began with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Mann ki Baat a couple of weeks ago, in which he singled out Punjab for the drug menace. “I have come across helpless and angry mothers in Punjab” he said, “The bullets that hit our soldiers is backed by drug money.” Anger against drugs runs deep in the Punjab countryside. The BJP, with its largely urban following, is for the first time eyeing rural Punjab. It sees the drug issue as the vehicle which can take it there. It was the AAP which capitalised on the issue and won a surprise four Lok Sabha constituencies in Punjab. A senior BJP leader pointed out, “If new entrant AAP could penetrate Sikh villages by taking up this issue, why can’t we do it?” Punjab BJP leaders have announced that party president Amit Shah will begin a campaign against drugs from Amritsar on January 12, and a march that touches 6,000 villages will be held. The ruling SAD, sharing power with the BJP in Punjab, immediately retaliated by asking the central government to stop the flow of drugs into the state from across the border as well as neighbouring states. Within days of this, the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is investigating a multi-crore drug money laundering racket, issued a summons to question Bikram Singh Majithia, Punjab’s Revenue Minister and brother of Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal. The ED had reportedly prepared a detailed questionnaire for Majithia last month. Majithia will be questioned at Jalandhar on Friday. An unusually assertive state BJP, led by its State President Kamal Sharma, and National Secretary Tarun Chugh and National Secretary BJP Kisan Morcha Sukhminderpal Singh Grewal promptly demanded Majithia’s resignation on moral grounds. With the Akalis supporting Majithia and Badal refusing to ask him to resign, ties between an already strained alliance became more frosty. But when the opposition Congress sought to capitalise on the open rift between the two, and pushed for a no-confidence motion on the issue in the Assembly, the two allies stood together to defeat the motion. Notwithstanding this, the party is still firm on its demand for Majithia’s resignation.
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