Punjab’s war on drugs: A crisis deferred, not defeated

It was 2015, the year Punjab found itself in the throes of a devastating drug crisis. The issue, which had haunted the State’s consciousness for over a decade, had finally erupted into the forefront of public discourse. It triggered a political free-for-all, with critics launching relentless attacks on the Parkash Singh Badal–led Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) government.

Amid the escalating turmoil, Captain Amarinder Singh, at a coronation event in Bathinda organised by the Punjab Congress to mark the beginning of his second term as State party chief, made a dramatic pledge. Taking an oath on the Gutka Sahib (a miniature Guru Granth Sahib) and Takht Damdama Sahib—one of Sikhism’s five most revered seats—he vowed to eradicate the drug menace from the State within four weeks if his party was elected to power.

The promise, steeped in both religious solemnity and political urgency, underscored the gravity of the issue and set the stage for a high-stakes political battle. Amarinder Singh became the Chief Minister in 2017. Ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha election, his government sent a recommendation to the Centre urging the death penalty for drug peddlers. It also announced mandatory dope tests for all government employees, igniting a political controversy. The main opposition party, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), was attempting to expand its national presence beyond Delhi ahead of the 2017 Assembly election in Punjab. In 2018, it challenged Amarinder Singh to lead by example and take a drug test himself. Aman Arora, the current AAP State chief, took the lead and underwent a dope test at a government hospital in Mohali.

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In the following years, the party consistently criticised Amarinder Singh for his perceived failure to effectively combat the drug problem. It accused him of being lenient towards Bikram Singh Majithia, a former Minister and brother-in-law of SAD leader Sukhbir Singh Badal, implicated in a drug case. AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal went a step further, openly alleging that Amarinder Singh was complicit in aiding the drug trade, an unprecedented charge. By August 2016, a politically confident Amarinder Singh too joined the fray and declared at a Congress rally that if his party came to power, Majithia would be imprisoned.

In 2018, however, Kejriwal issued an apology for making what he called “unfounded” allegations regarding Majithia’s involvement in the drug trade. It led to the withdrawal of a court case against him. The apology came nearly a year after The Tribune, a leading daily in Punjab, published a front-page “unconditional apology” to Majithia for reporting on his alleged connection to an illegal drug syndicate.

Fast forward to February 2025. The AAP-led government in Punjab has set yet another deadline in the war against drugs. The first deadline was announced ahead of the 2022 Assembly election, with a promise to eliminate the drug problem within six months. The second came on August 15, 2023, when Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann pledged to eradicate drugs before the next Independence Day (2024). The third deadline was set in April 2024 by AAP leader and Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, who aimed to complete the mission by December 31, 2024.

R.S. Ghuman, Professor of Eminence at the Punjab School of Economics, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, who has done a study on drug abuse in north-west India, told Frontline: “The drug crisis has only intensified in the last 15 years.”

Drugs trafficked through Punjab, which shares a border with Pakistan, often reach global markets. In the “Golden Crescent”—comprising Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan—Punjab is a key transit point for opium and heroin, according to Ghuman. International cartels often linked to organised crime networks in Pakistan, Canada, the UK, and Australia played a significant role in sustaining this supply chain, he added.

A study by the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, revealed that one in every seven people in Punjab—approximately 15.4 per cent of the population—consumes some form of drug. Social media is flooded with videos of addicts succumbing to overdoses, while the issue has been highlighted in several Punjabi and Hindi films such as Dhee Punjab Di (2015), Udta Punjab (2016), Rang Panjab (2018), and Dakuaan Da Munda (2018).

In 2023, Punjab Health and Family Welfare Minister Balbir Singh informed the Assembly that nearly one million drug addicts were enrolled in de-addiction centres across the State, acknowledging that the actual numbers were likely under-reported. Official data indicate that between April 2020 and March 2023, as many as 266 people in Punjab lost their lives due to overdose of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances.

Cabinet committee to track campaign

In February this year, Mann formed a five-member Cabinet committee to oversee the campaign against drug addiction that includes a de-addiction and rehabilitation programme. In the police action that followed, over 1,000 individuals linked to drug trafficking have been arrested, and over 700 new cases registered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act so far.

The government is mulling the withdrawal of all subsidies for those booked under the Act, a step to lend a sharper edge to its recently launched “war on drugs” drive. While cases registered under the NDPS Act in Punjab have come down from 11,564 in 2023 and 12,423 in 2022 to 9,025 cases in 2024, according to data shared by the Ministry of Home Affairs in Parliament, it still ranks second in number of cases.

The AAP government has claimed that the conviction rate in drug cases has improved to 86 per cent over the past three years and, in January, it sought a one-time special assistance of Rs.600 crore from the Centre to set up special NDPS courts for the speedy disposal of cases.

Amid an intensified crackdown on drug trafficking, following orders from the Supreme Court, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) summoned Majithia to appear before it in Patiala on March 17. The SIT is probing a drugs case against him that dates back to an FIR registered in December 2021 under the NDPS Act. Majithia’s name surfaced in drug-related cases after the arrest of Jagdish Bhola, a celebrated wrestler turned Punjab Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), in connection with a multi-crore drug racket. Bhola was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in July 2024.

Replicating “bulldozer justice”

Borrowing from the playbook of BJP-ruled States, the AAP government, in a bid to assert its political dominance in the only State where it is in power, is using bulldozers to raze properties belonging to alleged drug peddlers and traffickers that are encroachments on government lands. However, the demolition drive, carried out under police supervision as part of the war on drugs, has drawn criticism and legal scrutiny.

For instance, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has issued a notice to the Punjab government following a petition by People Welfare Society, a Chandigarh-based NGO.

According to the advocate Kanwar Pahul Singh, an executive member of the organisation, the bulldozer action contravenes both legal provisions and Supreme Court guidelines. Citing the NDPS Act, under which the alleged drug peddlers have been booked, he emphasised that the law prescribes seizure, freezing, and forfeiture of properties, not demolition.

At the same time, police authorities have sought to co-opt the public in the war on drugs by urging citizens to report officers involved in extortion or illegal activities. In March, the Kharar Police registered a case against a constable for allegedly threatening individuals with false drug charges and demanding money.

In another incident, a police constable from Zirakpur’s Dhakoli Police Station was arrested with a large consignment of drugs. Notably, in September 2024, DSP Vavinder Mahajan, formerly with the Anti-Narcotics Task Force, was booked for allegedly accepting a Rs.45 lakh bribe while investigating a drug case involving pharma companies.

The Centre has also acknowledged the increasing use of drones to smuggle arms and narcotics across the India-Pakistan border in Punjab. The Home Ministry issued a notification on October 11, 2021, expanding the Border Security Force’s (BSF) jurisdiction from 15 km to 50 km inside Punjab, West Bengal, and Assam. The BSF’s authority also extends across Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

‘Perception problem’

On March 4, the Punjab Police showcased its anti-drone prowess in the fight against cross-border drug smuggling. After the demonstration at the PCA Stadium in Mullanpur, Cabinet Minister Harpal Singh Cheema stated that three companies have made presentations on advanced anti-drone solutions, including portable, mobile, and stationary systems, designed to intercept drones at various ranges. State AAP chief and Cabinet Minister Aman Arora emphasised that while the Centre and the BSF are primarily responsible for countering cross-border smuggling, their past efforts have not fully curbed narco-terrorism.

Ghuman, who co-authored the book Dynamics of Drug Addiction and Abuse in India (Routledge India, 2023), emphasised that Punjab’s drug crisis is not just a law and order issue but a deeply entrenched systemic problem shaped by socio-economic and political factors.

“Successive governments have largely focused on small peddlers and users while failing to disrupt supply chains or address demand, largely due to police and political patronage. This narrow approach has not yielded the desired results,” he said. He stressed the need for a holistic, mission-driven strategy with coordinated efforts between the State and the Centre to eradicate both supply and demand. While a three-month deadline may provide some momentum, it will not resolve the structural issues sustaining the crisis, he cautioned.

Several rival political leaders have criticised the AAP’s aggressive avatar in Punjab. BJP leader and Delhi Minister Manjinder Sirsa described the recent crackdown on drugs and corruption as an exercise to portray Kejriwal as a “messiah” in the State following the AAP’s rout in Delhi. The Bahujan Samaj Party has announced a statewide campaign to combat the drug menace and expose what it describes as the “selfish, corrupt, and anti-people policies” of the State’s four major political parties: the Congress, the BJP, the SAD, and the AAP.

Punjab has also seen the emergence of Amritpal Singh, who leverages religious sentiments, separatist ideology, and the drug crisis to gain popular support. Despite being incarcerated under the National Security Act on charges of attempted murder and spreading social disharmony, he won the Lok Sabha election from Khadoor Sahib last year.

When the AAP leaders were in the opposition in the Punjab Assembly, they actively campaigned against the State’s persistent problems such as drug abuse, agricultural distress, migration, and water and air pollution. Now, when it is in power, the party is at the receiving end of a barrage of criticism both online and offline, from grassroots activists and farmer groups.

Political observers believe that the AAP in Punjab suffers from a perception problem. “The three years of AAP’s misgovernance in Punjab has been marked by rising crime, drug abuse, and illegal sand mining, which has eroded its long-forgotten conceit of being the “party with a difference”,” noted Harjeshwar Pal Singh, a political commentator, adding that the key voter groups—women, farmers, Dalits, and government employees—are disillusioned with the party. “Financial mismanagement, soaring State debt, and wasteful spending have damaged its ‘aam aadmi’ image,” he said and went on to add: “Corruption remains unchecked, and the AAP’s focus on publicity has earned it the sobriquet of ‘advertisement sarkar’.”

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The Chandigarh-based political scientist Mohammad Khalid observes that following the AAP’s electoral setback in Delhi, it is determined to consolidate its authority in Punjab by aggressively asserting control on multiple fronts. From cracking down on striking officials to curbing farm leaders and police personnel, the party is making calculated moves to reinforce its grip on the State.

“Whether it’s bulldozer action or a crackdown on farm leaders protesting against the Centre, as well as the AAP government’s unfulfilled electoral promises, these actions reflect the party’s frustration— both from its poor performance in Delhi and Punjab’s mounting debt,” Khalid noted.

The AAP’s electoral decline in Punjab became evident even before the Delhi debacle. Despite a landslide victory in the State about three years ago, the party could win only three seats in 2024 parliamentary election. In the civic body election in December 2024, except in Patiala, it could not win a majority in any municipality. It secured leadership only after a month-long period of political manouevring in four of the five municipal corporations that had held elections.

“The State government is struggling to pay salaries regularly, which indicates a deep financial distress,” said Khalid, describing the AAP’s heavy-handed governance as a diversionary tactic to mask its misgovernance. “But the AAP government’s attitude won’t yield political fruits. The party must realise that, ultimately, it will be judged based on the promises it made when it came to power.”