The Punjab Assembly elections are only a few months away. Once again, political parties have begun treating drugs as the main battleground. Last time, the party now in power promised voters that it would end the drug trade in Punjab within six months. Five years later, Punjab is still sunk in drugs. The same party now points to political and foreign reasons.
Is the drug trade only a political issue? Is it only Punjab’s problem? Not at all.
The drug trade is a worldwide problem. For India it is a national disaster. It needs a national resolve, just as the country launched a nationwide campaign against Naxalism and the affected states worked shoulder to shoulder with the Modi government.
Prime Minister Modi has set the goal of making the whole country drug-free. Home Minister Amit Shah is working on every option to make that campaign succeed.
Addiction does not start in a day. It often begins as fun. For some people it even becomes a status symbol. That hobby and show soon turn into a habit. People lose money, faith, and even their lives. Those in the trade often move into bigger crime.
How to bring addicts back to a normal life is a question before every government. No therapy or treatment can work until the supply of narcotics is fully stopped. You cannot change thought and behaviour only by talking. Forced de-addiction has sometimes even proved fatal.
Drug addiction is both a local and a national problem. It is also tightly linked to the world of crime. Its threads run from local criminals to international syndicates. That is why this fight can be won only with large-scale preparation.
Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and with the guidance of Home Minister Amit Shah, a wide strategy has been drawn up. Enforcement agencies, state governments, and ordinary citizens have all been made part of it. The approach is that the whole government and the whole society must take part.
In 2019 itself, Home Minister Amit Shah laid out a coordinated campaign against the drug network. Work is already going on with a clear roadmap. The resolve is to make India drug-free by 2029. If India is to become a developed country by 2047, the drug trade and the habit of drugs must end.
This June the Home Minister also issued a vision document on drug control for 2026–2029, with a clear three-year roadmap. In this national drive, intelligence and operations based on it have been given the highest priority. The goal of fully stopping precursors and synthetic drugs, or cutting their supply, has already been set.
To uproot the trade, Amit Shah has fixed a “3D” formula: Detect (find the drugs), Disrupt (stop them reaching people), and Destroy (wipe them out completely).
Because this is a fight against international gangs, the preparation has been made on the same scale.
As for Punjab, the Modi government has looked at the drug crisis beyond elections. The six worst-hit districts are Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Tarn Taran, Ludhiana, Ferozepur and Fazilka have been classified as “highly sensitive drug zones.” Five of these districts lie on the international border with Pakistan, and there is ample evidence of smuggling by drone from across the border. The Home Ministry has set a target of installing anti-drone technology and advanced surveillance systems along the international border by March 2027. Nearly 100 absconders linked to narco-terrorism in Punjab have been identified, and action is being taken against them.
Not only in Punjab but across the country, more than 100 large national and international drug networks were operating. Operations to finish them are under way and have already seen success. Between 2019 and July 2026, agencies seized more than 93.3 lakh kilograms of narcotic and psychotropic substances worth about Rs 1.53 lakh crore. Under the Modi government’s zero-tolerance policy, agencies have also stepped up efforts to bring criminals back from abroad. Raids and arrests of members of big drug syndicates continue inside the country. In 2024 alone, drugs worth Rs 25,330 crore were seized. High-profile arrests include Virendra Singh Basoya, who was brought back from the UAE this August. Under Operation Global Hunt, Mohammad Salim Dola was brought to India from Turkey. In Rajasthan, a raid led to the arrest of four people.
To fulfil the pledge of complete freedom from drugs by March 2029, the Home Minister is increasing the number of Narco Coordination Centres across the country from 334 to 1,751. To awaken the people of Punjab, the BJP has started “Nasha Mukt Punjab Yatras.” The campaign will end on 30 September in Jalandhar, where the Home Minister himself may address the people.

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