The case registered by the Punjab Police against Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) MLA and former Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia on Monday has again exposed the eight-year-old drug issue, which has been a part of the political narrative in Punjab. Is.
The narrative of Punjab’s youth becoming addicted to drugs started in the last decade. On 6 January 2014, Jagdish Singh Bhola, the alleged kingpin of a Rs 1,000 crore drug racket, told reporters in a Mohali court during his trial that Majithia was also involved in the case.
Till then everything was going well for Majithia. He was a 37-year-old youth leader, a cabinet minister in the cabinet of then chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and brother-in-law of then deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal. He was considered a rising tall leader of Majha region when drug allegations surfaced. The Congress then raised the issue in the opposition with 44 MLAs in the House of 117. The then PPCC chief Pratap Singh Bajwa took it up vociferously by holding dharnas across the state and even approaching the High Court demanding justice in the drugs case. Enforcement Directorate also inquired
Majithia, in December 2014, made the situation ripe for opposition parties to take it up.
AAP, which was then a budding political outfit in Punjab, had also aggressively raised the issue ahead of the 2017 assembly elections. Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal In his rallies, he will ask voters who is a drug smuggler. Amarinder Singh took the oath of Gutkha Sahib at a rally and said he would break the backbone of the drug trade and put the big fish behind bars in four weeks. Both Congress and AAP had promised that if voted to power, they will leave Majithia behind.
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After Congress came to power in 2017, former CM Amarinder Singh constituted a special task force on drugs in March 2017 and ordered an inquiry into the alleged racket. The then STF chief Harpreet Sidhu submitted his report to the High Court in February 2018. However, the report was never made public. No action was taken on the report.
This started a scuffle in the party. Several leaders, including the current Deputy CM Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, raised it publicly several times. Navjot Singh Sidhu also raised this several times. Randhawa often said that he should be made the Home Minister so that he can take action against Majithia.
The discord became so strong that it led to a revolt in the party against Amarinder. There was a feeling among the party people that Amarinder was “soft” towards Majithia. “Amarinder delayed action in the matter. His government then never tried to take up the issue with the High Court. We have taken it up and they have asked us to investigate. Had they not delayed it, justice would have been served,” said Randhawa, who also holds the home portfolio. Indian Express on Tuesday.
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