BJP’s Shah Addresses Rally; ECI Flags WPD As A National Security Concern

October

2026

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) 13-day Nasha Mukti Yatra (Drug Free March), which traveled across Panjab through four routes and covered around 4K km and 117 Assembly constituencies, culminated in Jalandhar on 30 Sep. Union Home Minister Amit Shah said while addressing a rally that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had allowed chitta (opioids) to circulate freely. He asked, 'Can AAP free Panjab of drugs? Can you trust AAP? Can you trust those whose name figured in the liquor scam in Delhi?' The crowd responded loudly, 'No'. Targeting the AAP Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, he said, 'Scams ravage Panjab. Smart city scams, Barnala land scam, panchayat (village councils) scams, anganwadi (child care scheme) scams; USD 72M is spent on advertisements annually. I ask Bhagwant Mann—what happened to your promises on 2.6M jobs, 16K AAP clinics, medical colleges, widow pension, mining revenue?' Shah promised the mothers and youth of Panjab that once voted to power, BJP will free Panjab from the scourge of chitta by 31 Dec 2029. He said the BJP will contest the election only on one issue—drugs. Shah’s promise is like former Indian National Congress’s (INC) leader Captain Amarinder Singh’s swearing on the Gutka Sahib (selected Sikh prayers) in 2016 that he would break the backbone of the drugs supply or AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal’s promise in 2021 that he would eradicate drugs within four weeks. Both INC and AAP formed governments but failed to curb drugs. Shah’s promise also seems impractical because the union government has already deployed the Border Security Force on the 553 km India-Pakistan border and 25 km inside the border in Panjab but they have not been able to stop the influx of drugs for the last 15 years. The fact is that drugs are not the disease but a symptom of the overall systemic breakdown in Panjab. To curb drugs, it is necessary to address the system. But party after party addresses only the symptom and fails to address the root cause. Meanwhile, jailed Khadoor Sahib Member of Parliament Amritpal Singh’s party, Akali Dal Waris Punjab De, applied for registration with the Election Commission of India (ECI) in January 2026 but still has not been registered. ECI has flagged WPD as a ‘national security concern’ in the Punjab and Haryana High Court (earlier coverage).