- BJP's Tarun Chugh raised Punjab's drug problem in Parliament
- Punjab BJP President also highlighted the drug menace as a critical issue for youth
- BJP has linked the Punjab drug crisis to the national anti-narcotics campaign and border security
When BJP national general secretary and Rajya Sabha MP Tarun Chugh raised Punjab's drugs problem in Parliament on Monday, it was anything but a routine parliamentary intervention on law and order. The intervention, which came weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Jalandhar rally where he raised the matter, signals the issue has moved up the BJP's political agenda.
A day earlier, Punjab BJP President Kewal Singh Dhillon had also flagged the issue. "Drug menace is destroying our youth and Punjab needs a decisive war against drugs," he said. Chugh's intervention in Parliament has just provided the issue a national platform.
The sequence is significant, especially in view of the Punjab Assembly elections.
PM Modi speaks about drugs in Punjab, the state BJP leadership picks up the issue, and the party's national leadership takes it to Parliament.
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At the national level, the BJP government has also launched an anti-drug programme, allowing the party to frame the Punjab drug crisis not simply as a state law and order issue but as part of a larger national campaign against narcotics.
Chugh highlighted the repeated use of drones to smuggle narcotics and weapons from Pakistan into Punjab. But his political argument went beyond border security. "The impact is being felt in every city, every village and even within individual households, where young people are losing their lives and their futures because of drug addiction," he said.
This could become a potent electoral narrative because almost every major political party in Punjab has, at some point, promised to eliminate the drug issue. Yet the problem has persisted, allowing the BJP to make a relatively simple argument: governments have made promises, launched campaigns and announced crackdowns, but the crisis remains.
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For the BJP, this is a new political pitch. The party has traditionally approached Punjab politics through issues such as national security, nationalism, development and its urban support base. The drugs menace allows it to enter a deeply emotive issue that cuts across geography, class and community, particularly in rural Punjab where the consequences of addiction have been politically visible for years.
The political opportunity is significant. AAP came to power in Punjab promising to tackle drugs. Congress has repeatedly made the issue central to its Punjab politics. The Akali Dal too has a complicated history with the subject. The BJP is now trying to position itself as the party that can offer a tougher, more national security-driven response.
If the party can raise the issue from Parliament to Punjab's streets, connect narcotics to border security and present a credible enforcement and rehabilitation framework, the drugs issue could emerge as a significant poll card for the BJP in 2027.
