'Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann Drinking And Driving State': Harsimrat Badal During Drug Abuse Debate In LS

Harsimrat Kaur Badal said in Parliament that Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann was drinking and driving the state as he took no measure to curtail the rampant drug abuse.

File photo of Shiromani Akali Dal MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal.

Shiromani Akali Dal MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Tuesday made a jibe at Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann, saying that he was "drinking and driving" the state. “The condition in which he (Punjab CM Mann) used to come to Parliament, in the same condition he's in Punjab. An inexperienced comedian has been made a CM while [Delhi CM Arvind] Kejriwal is using Punjab's money in state polls and gangsters are running the state,” Harsmirat Kaur Badal was quoted as saying by news agency ANI. 

Under the Calling Attention motion in the Lok Sabha on the problem of drug abuse in the country, she said there were signboards on roads, cautioning against drunk driving. “But the Punjab Chief Minister is drinking and driving the state,” she said. The lawmaker from Bathinda and wife of party chief Sukhbir Singh Badal was alluding to Mann's reported drinking habits. 

Attacking the AAP government in Punjab, Harsimrat Kaur Badal pointed out that even the Supreme Court had said that menace of liquor and drugs is damaging Punjab. “The youth of Punjab is being destroyed due to excess use of drugs and this menace is now gradually spreading to other parts of the country like Haryana, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Gujarat,” she said. 

Referring to a huge stock of drugs busted in Gujarat recently, she said that “narcotics terrorism” is being spread in the entire country. 

Congress MP from Amritsar Gurjeet Singh Aujla said that to counter cases of drug abuse in India, Union Home Minister Amit Shah should ensure that machines are installed at airports so that narcotics do not enter the country. 

Aujla said that the police should also be upgraded to check drug trafficking. "Instead of blaming each other, if we work together on a concrete policy, only then we would be able to move forward towards curbing this menace," he said.