It’s a hopeless situation! Perhaps the alleged conspiracy by Indian agencies to destabilize Punjab and rob its youth of their potential is working much better than another Punjab-hater Indira Gandhi’s attempts to use violence to suppress Punjab!
By R. Paul Dhillon
SURREY – Visiting Punjab human rights activist and Supreme court lawyer Navkiran Singh said while they have been busy fighting the good fight of human rights abuses in Punjab stemming from decades of strife in the state when police and government brutality led to the murders of thousands of young men, a new kind of menace to society has taken hold in Punjab, that of epidemic drug addiction that apparently affects 70 percent of Punjab’s young people.
The drug menace has gone unchecked in the state with the state governments either turning a blind eye or willfully participating in the racket to make money for their political agenda, with charges that Prakash Singh Badal’s SAD government Minister and relative Bikramjit Singh Majithia being a protector and benefactor of millions being made by various drug cartels in the state.
Some have also suggested that a CIA-style conspiracy could also be afoot in the state with government intelligence agencies willfully infecting Punjab’s youth with drugs as well as using it as a cash cow for their nefarious activities. Perhaps, it could also be neglect and stupidity by the Punjab government to willfully ignore the problem until it has become an epidemic.
While Navkiran Singh acknowledges all these theories could be at play, he says the immediate task of his organizations and other like it is to deal first with the flow of drugs in state both as a transit hub for supplying synthetic drugs like ecstasy internationally as well as transit route of drug smuggling, especially high grade heroin, from Pakistan.
He says just as important is to deal with the de-addiction of the youth who have been affected and as a result have become part of the criminal trade as carriers and criminals, doing robberies and other crimes in Punjab.
Following SAD’s low showing at the polls in the recent National elections, the party says it is serious about cracking down on the trade and have made minor arrests but Singh says those are just of small time carriers and users.
“They need to go after the big Fish in Punjab, the drug cartel bosses as well as crack down on the smuggling from Pakistan to make a real dent,” he said.
It’s a hopeless situation! Perhaps the alleged conspiracy by Indian agencies to destabilize Punjab and rob its youth of their potential is working much better than another Punjab-hater Indira Gandhi’s attempts to use violence to suppress Punjab!
