Congress, AAP 'defaming' Punjab's youth by calling them 'drug-addicts': Sukhbir Badal

 With Opposition parties making "drug menace" as major issue in the wake of upcoming assembly polls in Punjab, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal on Friday slammed Congress and AAP for "defaming" the youth of the state by calling them as "drug-addicts".

He claimed only 1.27 per cent of 3.75 lakh youths during recent police recruitment were "tested positive" for drug abuse. Sukhbir also lashed out at Opposition party leaders, including Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, and questioned them that how they arrived at the figure of "70 per cent youth of Punjab being drug addicts". Addressing media here, Sukhbir who is also president of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), asked the "anti-Punjab and anti-youth" Congress leader Amarinder Singh and AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal to tender an "unconditional apology" to the people of Punjab and its youth for conducting a "dangerous image distortion fraud" against them by branding the "children of the land of the Gurus" as a "generation of drug addicts".

"The demon-duo (Amarinder and Kejriwal) as well as their parties will have to pay heavily for this unforgivable sin which is akin to a heinous and deadly crime against our own children and younger brothers and sisters. In fact, so inseparable will the names of Amarinder and Arvind, and Rahul Gandhi remain on the list of the enemies of Punjab that in the popular perception they will always feature simultaneously with the leaders of the anti-Punjab " invasion and defamation" pack," he alleged.

He said Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal launched a "decisive" war on drugs and has "successfully" enlisted a wide-base popular support, especially from Punjabi youth against this social evil. Sukhbir alleged the Congress and AAP entered into an "unholy conspiracy" to brand the entire Punjabi youth as a "lost generation" addicted to drugs and even "funded" Bollywood films to defame Punjab and Punjabi youth across the country and the world. Sukhbir said the anti-Punjab leaders must now disclose how they arrived at the figure of 70 per cent youth of Punjab being drug addicts.

He alleged that the campaign launched by the Congress and AAP to brand Punjabis as "drug addicts" was akin to the Congress campaign of the eighties which branded all Sikhs as "terrorists".
Speaking about the test conducted on police recruits, he said the government took a decision in this regard to make the factual position clear before the nation.
"Now the defamation campaign initiated against us stands thoroughly exposed as only 1.27 per cent of the tested 3.75 lakh youth have been tested positive for drug abuse," he claimed.
He said the average drug abuse in case of opioids was much "below" the national average.

Baba Farid Health University vice chancellor Raj Bahadur, whose institution had been entrusted with the responsibility of conducting the tests by the Punjab government, disclosed that the objective of the study was to identify incidence of drug use among youth. "We decided to test candidates presenting themselves for recruitment as constables. Urine samples were taken using standard USFDA approved kits at a cost of Rs three crore and 3.75 lakh persons were tested across the state", he said. Bahadur said only 1.27 per cent candidates (4501) were tested positive for drug use. He said some candidates who had used performance enhancers were given an opportunity to get themselves retested and 1,672 candidates cleared the subsequent test.

He said what was most significant was that the incidence of drug use in youth in Punjab was less than the national, Asian and global averages. Quoting a UNODC study, the vice chancellor, who was accompanying Sukhbir, said the global and Asian percentage of opiod use was 0.3 per cent and the use in India was 0.7 per cent. He said in comparison to this, the opiod use percentage revealed in the study on police recruits was only 0.33 per cent.

The vice chancellor said this study revealed that the dubious reputation being given to Punjabi youth as drug addicts was false. "I can confidently state in my professional capacity that the statistics prove that the incidence of drug abuse in Punjab is less than national and international averages," he said. Giving details of the action taken against drug smugglers and drug trafficking, Director General of Police (DGP) Suresh Arora said Punjab had been the "most effective" in taking action against drug smugglers.

He said 14,483 cases had been registered against drug smugglers in Punjab in 2014 which formed 31 per cent of the percentage cases nationally. He said similarly 38 per cent of all arrests and seizures under the NDPS Act were recorded in Punjab in 2013. Punjab also recorded 46 per cent of all heroin recovered in the country and 31 per cent of opium in 2014, he said. Arora said Punjab had also frozen and forfeited properties worth Rs 227 crore of 195 smugglers after obtaining approval from the competent authority. 

Meanwhile, Punjab unit of Congress today rejected the "Akali-sponsored" survey on drug abuse in the state as a "state-sponsored piece of fabrication" and accused Sukhbir of trying to "mislead the people by fudging" the official numbers. In a statement issued here, the PPCC said Sukhbir's claim that there were only about 1 per cent drug addicts in Punjab was nothing but a "bundle of lies", which was in total conflict with data based on independent surveys.

"The government-sponsored figures released by Sukhbir are a clear attempt to hoodwink the people of Punjab," said the PPCC, adding that even the common man on the street was cognisant of the gravity of the situation. The rampant drugs menace in Punjab has assumed such grave proportions that virtually no family is insulated from its adverse impact, said the statement, adding that the people of the state are not going to be "fooled by the fake data" that Sukhbir is trying to project.

T he "controlled sample" used by the Akali government to support its claim that there was no "serious drugs problem" in the state could not help them "cover up" the issue. The people of Punjab are suffering the truth every day and will not accept his patently false claims, said PPCC leaders Sunder Sham Arora, Ramanjit Singh Sikki and Gurchet Singh Bhullar. The sample on which Sukhbir's claims were based related to the 3.75 lakh youth who had applied for police recruitment, and who were naturally expected to be normal and healthy. It would be naive, said the PPCC leaders, to expect a drug addict to apply for a police job, which requires rigorous physical and medical tests.

The PPCC leaders further pointed out that the Badal government had itself admitted, in an affidavit submitted to the Punjab and Haryana High Court through its Chief Secretary on July 13, 2015, that between June 2014 and June 2015, three lakh addicts had approached the de-addiction centres for treatment, while 13,000 were admitted indoors.

"Do these figures show that there is no drugs problem in Punjab or do they indicate that the situation is indeed alarming?" they asked.

Countering Sukhbir's charges that PPCC president Amarinder Singh was defaming the people of Punjab, the leaders asked how recognising the seriousness of a problem that has destroyed an entire generation can amount to defamation of the youth. The PPCC leaders cited the independent study- 'Punjab OPIOID Dependence Survey', conducted by Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment -to point out that an estimated 2.3 lakh people in Punjab were opioiddependent.

Also, the study had found that 76 per cent of all opioid dependents in Punjab were in the 18-35 age group, indicating an alarming rise of drug addiction among youth. Ironically, said the PPCC leaders, the data released by DGP Suresh Arora in Sukhbir Badal's presence at the latter's press conference was itself indicative of the scale of the problem.

As per Arora's figures, in 2014, 14,483 cases were registered against drug smugglers in Punjab, which constituted 31 per cent of the cases nationally. Punjab also reportedly recorded 46 per cent of all heroin recovered in the country and 31 per cent opium in 2014, according to the DGP's statistics.

With such large-scale seizures, there can be no doubt in anyone's mind that drugs are flowing freely all over the state, under the benign eye of the state government and its agencies, the Punjab Congress leaders observed.