Jalandhar, October 19: Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini on Monday criticised the Punjab government over the growing drug menace in the state, saying Punjab's youth had been dragged into addiction and needed to be rescued through work on a massive scale.

Speaking in Jalandhar, Saini was asked about the murder of anti-drug activist Parvinder Singh Jhota in Mansa and the continuing drug problem in Punjab. Taking a direct dig at the Aam Aadmi Party government, he said: "The government was formed on lies and jokes. Jokes don't work; it's the work that works."

"This is what the situation in Punjab has come to: the youth of Punjab have strayed into addiction, and addiction has dragged them into the depths. We need to work on a massive scale to rescue them," Saini said, adding that the consequences of addiction fall on entire families, not just the user.

Saini endorsed Union Home Minister Amit Shah's pledge on Punjab. "Amit Shah ji recently said that we will free Punjab from drugs before 2029, and we will do it," he said, expressing confidence that the objective could be achieved. At the same time, he said the drug issue should not be reduced to political arguments, describing it as an emotional and social concern, and called for a collective, united effort.

Political framing (labelled): Saini's characterisation of the Punjab government is a political claim by a BJP chief minister of a neighbouring state, made on Punjab soil a day before Shah's October 20 visit to meet the families of anti-drug voices killed in Mansa, Sangrur and Gurdaspur. It was also his second intervention on the Jhota killing in three days: on October 17 he had accused the Punjab government of failing to deliver on its promise to end the drug menace within three to six months. Awaaz Punjab has not independently verified the claims behind the rhetoric, and no response from the Punjab government to Monday's remarks had been reported at the time of writing.

With the BJP's top leadership, a neighbouring BJP chief minister, the Congress's Punjab in-charge and AAP's national convenor all trading charges over drugs within the same 48 hours, the drug crisis — not welfare or development — is setting the terms of Punjab's 2027 election fight.

Sources: ANI via LatestLY, Daily Prabhat, DevDiscourse