Opinion: Focusing On A Superstar's Child Won't Fix Our Drugs Problem

On October 2, we observed "National Anti-Drug Addiction Day" to mark the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi who actively spoke against the use of drugs and addiction. Unfortunately, drug abuse and trafficking have increased manifold since 2020 and the recent haul of over 3,000 kgs of drugs at Mundra Port points us in the same direction. This should ring alarms bells of a larger conspiracy at play and highlight the need for the government to prioritize these investigations. But rather than looking at the porous borders afresh so as to control the drugs being smuggled into the country, the limelight clearly has been put on irrelevant findings that have no bearing on the ability to trace, identify and destroy easy access of hard drugs across the country and break drug mafias.

The strong parallel network and nexus of these mafias need to be broken quickly, else India's demographic dividend will become its disaster. The recent breathless coverage of a superstar kid who was caught in a drug raid was a throwback to the malicious coverage of an actor's suicide that led to the Narcotics Control Bureau getting involved and the hounding of a woman actor. The details would make any sane mind understand that this was anything but an attempt to bust drug mafia. It is unfortunate that our national media continues to miss the woods for the trees, and peddles lurid details of individual incidents rather than investigations that will lead to accountability.

Last month, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence seized nearly 3,000 kg of heroin branded as 'Semicut Talcum Powder' from Gujarat's Mundra Port. The number 3,000 should speak volumes. This number is significant because this is the central point of the mafia which enforcement agencies should be chasing; however, it isn't so. The drug haul raises big questions on how our border security was breached and how a consignment so huge was able to make it across. The premier enforcement institutions of the country cannot afford to run the political agenda of the centre while in the bargain losing credibility; they are failing their primary responsibility to the citizens of the country.

Drug use, especially among the youth, is a pervasive phenomenon. When we look deeper into the root cause for this, we see the ugly truth of our society. Unaddressed mental health issues, peer pressure, lack of parental guidance, unemployment, educated unemployment, and most importantly, easy availability of drugs and narcotics are the core reasons for this. As a society, there is a need to provide a safe space. We need to acknowledge and understand the dilemmas and issues plaguing young people and provide them with a strong support system at the personal and institutional levels.

Resources and attention have to be given to catching the heads of international drug cartels and their nexus in India. There is a need to review the national security situation at borders considering the present geopolitical crisis in Afghanistan which is the largest producer of heroin. The present situation for India at the borders is frightful, with Pakistan using the rise of the Taliban to cripple India including through narcoterrorism. It will only get worse if not put to a halt soon.

Another crucial point to notice is that the Narcotics Control Bureau, which functions as the apex national body on drugs and narcotics issues, surprisingly has been without a full-time Director General​ for over two years. In the recent cruise liner raid, news reports said that two alleged BJP workers were seen accompanying young individuals to NCB office; this puts a big question mark on the entire credibility of the institution. Who gave them the authority? Where does the accountability lie? How credible is the investigation being carried out? Why is the government not talking about it and focusing on this?

Making scapegoats out of few young individuals who have gone astray is not going to set that momentum. The government has to look at the larger context of things, target the problem at hand, and rise above its political vendetta to prioritise this challenge. When it comes to us, we as a society need to face the mirror and ask hard questions to ourselves - as parents, as caregivers and as citizens and also to the government in curbing the crisis we have found ourselves in.

(Priyanka Chaturvedi is Member of Rajya Sabha and Deputy Leader Shiv Sena)

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