- BJP MP shared a video wrongly attributing drug issues to Punjab, sparking political debate
- Punjab faces a complex drug crisis linked to narco-terrorism and cross-border criminal networks
- Yudh Nasheyan Virudh campaign led to over 51,000 arrests and large heroin seizures since 2025
A video shared by BJP Rajya Sabha MP Harbhajan Singh triggered yet another political war over Punjab's drug crisis. Singh shared a video showing two men apparently in an intoxicated state and presented it as a reflection of Punjab's situation. AAP leaders hit back, accusing him of maligning Punjab, before it emerged that the video was actually from Sri Ganganagar in Rajasthan, not Punjab. The video may have been wrongly attributed to Punjab, but the political spat has once again exposed a much larger and deeply uncomfortable reality: Punjab's drug problem is real, and it is no longer merely a law-and-order issue.
The state's response, however, often remains trapped in the language of campaigns. There are bike rallies, cycle rallies, awareness drives, e-rickshaw campaigns, school programmes, helplines and endless messaging. The government has even proposed a Rs 42.95-crore action plan for prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and outreach for 2026-27. Awareness matters, and rehabilitation matters. But awareness alone cannot dismantle a supply chain stretching across borders, ports, drones, gangsters and local peddlers. A rally can create awareness; it cannot intercept a drone. A poster can change a conversation; it cannot dismantle a financial network.
And this is where the political debate in Punjab needs to mature. For nearly 15 years, governments have changed, slogans have changed and campaigns have changed, but the fundamental crisis has survived. Congress blamed the Akalis. The AAP blamed previous governments. The BJP blames the state government. The state blames the Centre and Pakistan. Everyone has a part of the explanation. Nobody has yet produced a sufficiently credible long-term blueprint to change Punjab's trajectory.
The same problem is visible in Punjab's finances. The 2026-27 budget projects outstanding debt at about Rs 4.48 lakh crore by March 2027, while the state is still budgeting for a revenue deficit of Rs 21,955 crore and a fiscal deficit of nearly Rs 40,000 crore. The question is not simply how much Punjab borrows. The bigger question is what Punjab is borrowing for, and whether that borrowing is creating an economy capable of paying it back.
That is why the drug crisis, the arms crisis, the gangster crisis and the fiscal crisis cannot be viewed as separate stories. They are symptoms of the same larger problem: a state that increasingly struggles to generate enough productive economic opportunity, social stability and institutional capacity to secure its future.
Punjab's political class often treats the state like a five-year college assignment: prepare a project, make a presentation, announce a few schemes, campaign for votes and move on. But Punjab cannot be governed in five-year instalments anymore. Its problems have accumulated over decades and require a generational response.
The state does not merely need another government, another slogan or another "war" against another menace.
Punjab needs a vision for survival, economically, socially and strategically. Otherwise, governments may keep announcing victories while the crisis keeps winning on the ground.
