बेबाक · Editorial
Punjab's Anti-Drug Activists Are Being Killed; Centre and State Must Protect Them Together
The murder of activists who stood against drugs is a test of the Indian state, and that test is failed whenever the Centre and Punjab use the crisis to compete instead of cooperating.
A Shop, A Shooting
On October 13, the Punjab anti-drug activist Parvinder Singh, known as Jhota, was shot dead inside a medical shop. As reported, his family refused to cremate him until a CBI inquiry was ordered. The Union Home Minister then met bereaved families in Sangrur, Batala and Mansa. He pledged that those behind the killings of anti-drug activists in Punjab would be hunted down, and he set 2029 as the target for a drug-free Punjab. Several newsrooms reported the visit. The facts behind the coverage are stark. People who confronted the trade in their own neighbourhoods are being killed, and at least one grieving family has refused to trust the ordinary machinery of justice to find out who did it.
Two Claims of Duty
Each side has a serious argument. In its strongest form, the Centre's case runs like this. Drug trafficking crosses state lines and international borders. When local enforcement appears to falter, central agencies have a duty to step in. The Home Minister has asked the public to report illicit drug trafficking directly to central authorities, and said central agencies would intervene if the state administration fails to act. That appeal is meant to give frightened witnesses another door to knock on. The State's case, at its strongest, rests on the Constitution. Policing is a state subject. An invitation to bypass the state administration weakens the very police force that must patrol every village long after any central team has left. The Home Minister's request that the Punjab Chief Minister hand drug-related death cases to the CBI sharpens this disagreement over who is responsible.
The Trade Is National
The wider record shows why neither government can claim this fight for itself alone. At Bhubaneswar airport, Customs officials seized nearly 8.5 kg of marijuana from a flight arriving from Bangkok, and three passengers were detained. In Jammu and Kashmir, police arrested six drug peddlers across Shopian, Kulgam and Anantnag districts in a single day. At a Union Territory-level conference on anti-human trafficking convened by the Crime Branch of Jammu and Kashmir at Tagore Hall in Srinagar, the IGP Crime named 'cyber slavery' as an emerging threat, and the conference called for better coordination and stronger cyber capacity. Trafficking runs through airports, across borders and over the internet. Enforcement split between rival jurisdictions is exactly the kind of gap such networks can exploit.
Protection, Not Positioning
This newspaper's view is that a family's demand for an independent inquiry deserves respect. It reflects a lack of trust, and that lack of trust should trouble every government involved. But a central inquiry offered as a political point, and resisted for the same reason, helps no one who is grieving. During his visit, the Home Minister also accused the state government of failing to curb drugs. That charge deserves an answer on the evidence, and the state government deserves the chance to make its case on the same terms. Turning the visit into an exchange of blame risks making murdered citizens into ammunition. A citizen who names a drug peddler should not need to choose which government to trust with his life. Strong states make a strong centre. The goal of a drug-free Punjab by 2029 will be reached through joint, accountable work, and it will not be reached through a contest over jurisdiction.
A Workable Compact
There is a practical way forward. The Centre and the Punjab government should agree, in writing and in public, which killings of anti-drug activists will be investigated by the CBI and which by the state police. Each investigating agency should report on its progress to the High Court within a fixed timeline. The two governments should also set up a shared witness-protection protocol so that people who report trafficking can do so without fear. Central and state agencies should share intelligence on the routes traffickers use, from airports like Bhubaneswar to the border districts. Finally, both should publish data on seizures and convictions every quarter. The public should be able to judge this campaign by convictions secured and lives protected, not by speeches made at funerals.
A citizen who names a drug peddler should not need to choose which government to trust with his life.
What this editorial rests on
Drawn from our live multi-newsroom feed — read the reporting at source.
An editorial is the considered opinion of the FarziUPSC desk, argued from the sourced reporting above and written under our published persona, बेबाक. We name institutions, not parties. If we are wrong, we will say so. How we work →