The three 'Ds' that will define the Punjab elections

Drugs, development, demonetisation key issues ahead of Assembly polls

These days, it is hard to miss newspaper and radio advertisements, large hoardings and painted walls singing paeans of the Parkash Singh Badal-led Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) government in Punjab. The advertisements boast about development work, which the state government has undertaken in the last 10 years.

These advertisements, however, conscientiously conceal the fact that most of the social welfare schemes during this period belonged to the Union government, with whom the Akalis have an alliance in both state and Centre. The central schemes that the Akalis have made part of their propaganda, include setting up of an Indian Institute of Management in Amritsar, ambulances and Rs 2 per kg ration under the Food Security Act. 

“The Akalis had adopted the same media strategy in the 2012 Assembly elections. They went hammer and tongs showcasing their work in the state,” says Liakit Bir, executive director of non-profit organisation, Pahal, in Jalandhar. Bir fears that such high-decibel media campaigns would leave a lasting impression on voters’ minds and further confuse them. “The voters begin associating with the schemes without knowing who is actually running them. They ignore other governance issues,” he feels. 

This assumption holds true especially for women voters who have directly benefited from various schemes and continued to pledge their support for the current chief minister. 

The society, however, appears divided. Many believe that it would be difficult for the Akalis to beat anti-incumbency this time using media campaigns.  In fact the newcomer, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which was on its peak in Punjab till few months ago, is slowly rebuilding its campaign in the Akali stronghold of rural Punjab after having faced an acrimonious split in its ranks. AAP is engaging voters on the issue of drugs and governance.    

“The families of drug addicts in villages are waiting to punish the ruling dispensation for not acting tough against the drug mafia. They feel another term for the Akalis will ruin the Punjab youth completely,” says Amandeep Singh, a resident of Kot Khurd village.  

The menace of drug abuse can be gauged from the fact that of the total drugs seized during the 2012 Assembly elections in Punjab, Goa, Manipur, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, 95 per cent alone came from Punjab. The police, the Border Security Force and the Narcotics Control Bureau confiscated 54 kg heroin, 4 kg smack, and 2,707 kg poppy husk from different parts of Punjab as against 0.82 kg heroin, 2 kg smack and 105 kg poppy husk in Uttar Pradesh, the country’s most populous state. Punjab was also ahead in the recovery of drug tablets as compared to other poll-bound states. Of the total one million tablets seized, 99 per cent came from Punjab. 

The state government’s denial of the actual number of drug users is giving more ammunition to the opposition parties, including the Congress, which has promised jobs to youth who give up narcotics and sign with it. The state government believes that barely a fraction of its 2.7 crore population is dependent on drugs, whereas studies suggest that it could be as high as 16 per cent. Though the SAD-BJP alliance government has opened de-addiction centres in each district of Punjab, it is yet to provide adequate trained staff for these centres. Besides, it refuses to open de-addiction centres for women drug addict on the premise that most women don’t take drugs in Punjab. 

“These days, Punjab is facing a new problem with some religious organisations taking up the work of treating addicts. These organisations forcefully take the addicts to their centres. The addicts are tied up and beaten instead of being put on medication. This is the most terrible form of treating a drug patient. These organisations then force the addicts to forcefully read religious books and derive inspiration from them,” says a leading psychiatrist in Punjab.

The other issue, which is slowly taking centrestage, is demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. Though traders in Punjab’s industrial towns of Ludhiana and Jalandhar are unhappy about the BJP move, the villagers are ambivalent.