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Harsimrat Badal targets Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann during debate in Lok Sabha on drug abuse
Shiromani Akali Dal lawmaker Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Tuesday targeted Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann during a debate in the Lok Sabha on the issue of drug abuse. Several words from her speech had to be expunged by the Chair later
New Delhi: Shiromani Akali Dal lawmaker Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Tuesday targeted Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann during a debate in the Lok Sabha on the issue of drug abuse. Several words from her speech had to be expunged by the Chair later.
“Alcohol is nothing but an addiction. And I am trying to say how addiction is affecting people,” said former Union minister Badal, who initiated the debate on the problem of drug abuse and the steps taken by the government. “If the chief minister is like this then you can imagine what the condition of the state will be.”
She also claimed that “the lawmakers who used to sit next to Mann wanted to change their seats”. Mann was the only member of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the Lok Sabha, which currently has no representative from the AAP.
The MP from Bathinda also claimed that the Punjab chief minister had to be deboarded from a Lufthansa flight a few months ago. The German airline had later said that its flight was delayed due to an “aircraft change”.
Stating that the law-and-order situation in Punjab was deteriorating, Badal claimed that “drugs had even entered schools”. “No one feels safe here. People are leaving the state (Punjab) and going abroad because of the drug menace,” she alleged.
AAP spokesperson in Punjab did not respond to multiple calls for a comment.
Several Lok Sabha members on Tuesday said that political parties should put aside their differences and come together to fight drug abuse, while asking the government to take “urgent” steps to save the youth.
Nationalist Congress Party leader Supriya Sule, without mentioning any case, sought to control the narcotics enforcement officers who, for TV headlines, arrest youngsters in drug-related cases. She also underlined the need to de-stigmatise drug abuse and mental health.
Congress leader Gurjeet Singh Aujla demanded stricter law enforcement to check drug abuse and also highlighted newer routes such as ports in Gujarat used by traffickers. DMK’s Veeraswamy Kalanidhi also demanded that drug addicts be placed in rehabilitation centres and not in jails. He urged the government to set up more rehabilitation centres — at least one in each parliamentary constituency.
Kalanidhi also urged the government to spend at least ₹50 crore in every parliamentary constituency to set up sports complex to “keep youngsters engaged in meaningful activities” that would keep them away from drugs.
Bharatiya Janata Party’s Satyapal Singh urged the government to focus on moral education in school curricula and encourage a culture of sports to pull children away from addiction.
