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Union Home Minister Amit Shah offers his condolences to Bhim Singh, the father of anti-drug activist Parvinder Singh Jhota, in Mansa on October 20, 2026. | Photo Credit: ANI

The drug menace in Punjab, which remained at the centre stage for more than a decade, is yet again emerging as the key poll issue ahead of the 2027 Assembly election.

On Tuesday (October 20, 2026), Union Home Minister Amit Shah travelled to Punjab and met the families of those who recently lost their lives after speaking out against the drug menace. Notably, hours before his visit, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government announced a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the murder of Parminder Singh Jhota, an anti-drug crusader, who was murdered in Mansa on October 13. Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann said his government stood firmly with Jhota’s family and transferred the case to the CBI in response to its demand.

The AAP and the police had so far been asserting that Jhota’s murder stemmed from “personal enmity”, even as Jhota’s family had been demanding a CBI probe. Reacting to this development, Mr. Shah said: “Today morning when Bhagwant Mann ji came after celebrating his birthday, he did a good thing by handing over an inquiry to the CBI. I also want to appeal to the Chief Minister, please hand over the other two cases to the CBI as well.”

The Home Minister accused the AAP government of doing nothing concrete to eradicate the drug menace. “I have come to remind the Punjab government and its leaders that you had promised to end the drug business within three months. But five years have passed and the business is growing day by day,” he said.

“They [the AAP] accuse us of saying that drugs come from the ports of Gujarat and Maharashtra. We have caught up to ₹20,000 crore worth of drugs so far. What do they mean? Should we not catch them? But how do those drugs reach Punjab? It is not possible without political patronage. The drug business and trade of ‘chitta’ have reached every single village and you have failed to stop it.”

Mr. Mann accused Mr. Shah of playing politics on the issue. “Home Minister Amit Shah is welcome to visit Punjab whenever he wants. But the BJP is propagating that it has come to save Punjab and make it drug-free. I have a few questions for the Home Minister. When your government was in power in partnership with the Akali Dal from 2007 to 2017, and the problem of drugs grew into a major crisis, with drugs arriving in quantities running into quintals, why were you not concerned about saving Punjab then? Why did you not take action?” he asked in a statement.

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