Mr Badal's drug war: Punjab has 70% addiction. He insists it's just 0.7!

"However, there was variation in the type of drugs imbibed in the regions. While opium was most imbibed in Majha, in Doaba, the synthetic drugs and pills were most taken, among the sampled drug abuser population. A variation in the above trend was exhibited in alcohol consumption, where a household in Majha has the highest alcohol consumption (58.10%) and Malwa the least."

Then, there are studies like the Delhi Policy Group's 'The Drug Problem in Punjab'. It quotes an affidavit filed by the Badals' own government in 2009, which stated that 7 out of 10 college students were hooked on to drugs of some kind; every third male and 10^th female student had taken drugs on some pretext. Also, 66% of school-going students were in the habit of consuming tobacco and gutka.

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It also quoted a 2006 survey by the Guru Nanak Dev University, which found that 73.5% of the state's youth (16-35 years of age) were drug addicts.

Claim laughable

Former Director General of Police (DGP) Shashikant Sharma, who was the first person to blow the lid off the politician-drug mafia nexus in the state, way back in 2007, told Catch: "Ask him [Badal] to furnish the survey, its detailed papers, when it was done and what was the sample size. I would congratulate him and tell him that at least he has woken up to the reality of drugs in the state."

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Shashikant had, in 2007, prepared a list of top drug smugglers, and had named some politicians in it. He was heading the intelligence department at that point of time.

Social activist Parvinder Singh Kittna from Nawanshahr laughs off Badal's claims. "By putting the number of young addicts at 0.7%, he appears to have put the zero on the wrong side of the figure. He must look at affidavits submitted by his own government. Interestingly, this government does not consider alcohol addiction to be a part of drug abuse. The Deputy CM making such a statement shows that he does not rely on the findings of the government's own agencies," he said.

Political mudslinging

It was Congress leader Rahul Gandhi who brought up the figure of 70% in the run-up to the general election. Since then, the Badals and their Shiromani Akali Dal have passed up no opportunity to tell the public that the Congress is out to defame Punjab. They insist the drug problem is not as serious as it is made out to be.

Even while making the 0.7% claim, Badal said if Gandhi's comment was true, Punjabis would not have been producing grains for the entire country.

The Akali Dal stands firmly behind their party president. Party leader Dr Daljit Singh Cheema said: "It is a reply to those who have been trying to defame Punjab, those who have been saying that 70% of our youth are drug addicts. The figure of 70% was derived at by surveying 600 drug addicts, out of which 70% were youth. This was done without applying the mind, just to make an exaggerated claim."

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Cheema added: "One the other hand, Sukhbir Badal has quoted a reliable agency while making the claim. How can there be 70% drug addicts when half the population in the state are females?"

But senior Congress leader Sunil Jakhar, who has raised this issue repeatedly in the state Assembly, sees the statement as nothing but the government being in denial.

"They should be sincere enough to call a spade a spade. High drug addiction is a harsh reality. But they cannot explain why so many drug addiction centres have been opened, only to be shut a few days later. They do not have the political will to deal with the problem that will remain till its source is crushed. They still have the audacity to deny it," Jakhar said.

He alleged that before the general elections, Narendra Modi's close aide (and now BJP national president) Amit Shah was planning to launch a yatra against drug abuse from Amritsar. The BJP and the Akalis are old allies, and eventually, Jakhar claims, the plan was shelved.

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"Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi has admitted he was approached by a woman on the issue in one of his Mann ki Baat radio addresses," Jakhar said.

Aam Aadmi Party leader RR Bhardwaj sees Badal's statement as a sign of helplessness in tackling the problem.

"The statement comes as a joke to the people. They [the government] have failed in all the three aspects of controlling supply and distribution of drugs, apart from providing proper relief and rehabilitation to the victims of drug abuse. Such an incorrect statement is a sign of their frustration," Bhardwaj said.

He added that even the most conservative findings by government agencies like the social security department put the number of addicts at four in every 10 persons surveyed.

In the light of the government's own data, Badal's statement appears to be not just false, but enormously so. And with the elections in the state just about 12 months away, claims and counter-claims about this most crucial of issues will only intensify in the coming months.

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