Army recruitment from Punjab dropped from 17% to 0.75% due to drug menace: ABVP

The BJP’s youth wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) is set to release a survey which shows a steep decline in the number of recruits from Punjab to the army in the last 14 years due to the drug menace in the state. [caption id=“attachment_2044351” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] ABVP is set to release a survey on the drug menace in Punjab. AFP[/caption] The number of recruits from Punjab has reduced from 17 percent to 0.75 percent, claimed ABVP, according to Economic Times. The report adds that ABVP members also said that the drug problem has rendered the youth in Punjab incapable of meeting the army’s ‘good physical standards’. This move by the ABVP could harm the ties between BJP and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), which leads the government in Punjab. “The war is against drugs and not against any political party. Regardless of how mighty anybody may be, we will wage this war without fear or bias,” said Suraj Bhardwaj, ABVP’s organising secretary for Punjab, according to the ET report. Even Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has acknowledged the drug menace in the state. Earlier on 9 January, Badal had called it a ’national problem’. “We have suffered a lot of pain in the past. First it was of partition, then militancy. Earlier we were labelled as terrorists and now they call us drug addicts,” an anguished Chief Minister had told the Indian diaspora at the 13th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas event. Terming drug addiction a “national problem just like militancy,” Badal had said," We are waging the nation’s war against drugs. Drugs come from outside, we in Punjab don’t make it. We have caught drugs coming into India from other states as well." Widespread drug abuse, apart from being a matter of social concern, has also acquired political dimensions with both the BJP and Congress flagging the issue during the Lok Sabha poll. The ruling Shiromani Akali Dal had earlier this month staged a dharna against the drug menace in the state near the International Border. (With inputs from PTI)