Jalandhar, Sep 30: Union Home Minister Amit Shah launched a scathing attack on the AAP government in Punjab on Wednesday over the drug menace in the state, accusing it of allowing the trade in the contraband to run openly.
Seeking support for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Assembly polls due early next year, Shah said the saffron party will free Punjab from "chitta" (heroin) by December 31, 2029.
He said the BJP will fight the Assembly polls on the issue of "Nasha Mukt Punjab (drugs-free Punjab)".
"Can AAP make Punjab drugs-free? Only the BJP can make Punjab drugs-free," Shah said.
The senior BJP leader was addressing a rally at Paragpur here to mark the culmination of the party's "Nasha Mukt Punjab Yatra", which began on September 18.
Hitting out at the AAP government led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, Shah alleged that it allowed the "chitta" trade to run openly in Punjab.
Seeking support for the BJP, he said, "I promise Punjab's mothers and youngsters from here that before December 31, 2029, we will free Punjab from chitta."
On his arrival at Jalandhar in the afternoon, the home minister paid obeisance at the Shree Devi Talab temple here. Later, he met some families affected by the menace of drugs.
"I met the families of those who lost their kin due to drug addiction. A mother, holding the pictures of her two sons, said the drug scourge should be ended," Shah said.
He added that the woman told him that she has lost her sons to the scourge, but no other mother should face her plight.
Hitting out at the AAP government, Shah said, "But they are not feeling ashamed."
Without naming anyone, he said those who themselves remain high and disrespect Sikh gurus cannot free Punjab from drugs.
Before addressing the rally, in a post in Punjabi on X, Shah said Punjab is grappling with a serious drug problem due to the AAP government's poor governance and called the Mann dispensation "aapda" (disaster).
He said the people of Punjab are waging a decisive battle against drugs and uniting the state in the process. The BJP's yatra reached every village in Punjab, raising drug awareness while also inspiring youngsters to join the campaign, he added.
Addressing the rally, Shah said, "When I say we will make Punjab drugs-free before December 31, 2029, what (AAP supremo Arvind) Kejriwal and company are going to say behind me? I want to tell the people of Punjab that we have done what we had said earlier."
He talked about the success achieved by the Narendra Modi government at the Centre against several challenges, such as terrorism in Kashmir, insurgency in the northeast and the problem of Naxalism.
"We eradicated Naxalism, we ended terrorism.... Give us one chance, we will wipe out the drug menace from Punjab," the home minister said.
Now is the turn of "Chitta Mukt Punjab", he added.
Shah said those indulging in the drug trade will be sent behind bars and asserted that it is the BJP's promise to the mothers of Punjab that after December 2029, there will be no one supplying drugs to youngsters in the state.
Shah asked people to remove the "incompetent" AAP government and said, "Within two years, we will eradicate the drug menace."
He noted that Punjab's development cannot happen until youngsters in the state are freed from addiction.
"These drugs are ruining our coming generations. They take the lives of young people. So that youngsters in Punjab do not get drugs, such a strict system can be created only and only under the leadership of Narendra Modi and no one else," he said.
Shah also expressed concern over Punjab's economic situation. "Punjab's economic condition is very poor," he said.
Punjab BJP chief Kewal Singh Dhillon, party leaders Tarun Chugh, Sunil Jakhar, Ashwani Sharma, Vikramjit Singh Sahney, Manpreet Badal, Iqbal Singh Lalpura, Preneet Kaur, Vijay Sampla, Sandeep Pathak, Som Prakash, Manoranjan Kalia, Manjinder Singh Sirsa, Ravneet Singh Bittu, Raghav Chadha, Harbhajan Singh and Ashok Mittal were present at the rally.
The Nasha Mukt Punjab Yatra was launched under the slogan of "BJP da Nara, Nasha Mukauna Saara (wipe out drugs is the slogan of the BJP)".
It travelled through all 117 Assembly constituencies in Punjab, covering 4,000 kilometres, and reached Jalandhar on Tuesday.
BJP national president Nitin Nabin flagged off the first of the four statewide anti-drug yatras from the Ekta Sthal in Pathankot on September 18.
Since then, several Union ministers, chief ministers of some BJP-ruled states and senior leaders of the saffron party participated in the campaign.
