Youth Akali Dal President Sarabjeet Singh Jhinjer today demanded direct answers from Arvind Kejriwal, calling him the real decision-maker in Punjab, over the Aam Aadmi Party government’s much-publicised ‘Yudh Nasheyan Virudh’ campaign. He said Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann is merely a puppet, while all key decisions related to policy, publicity and priorities are dictated from Delhi.
Sarabjeet Singh Jhinjer said that as the second phase of the campaign is being launched with massive publicity, Arvind Kejriwal must first place a White Paper before the people of Punjab detailing the real outcomes of the first phase. He questioned how many crores of public money were spent on flexes, hoardings, political advertisements and paid news—both within Punjab and outside the state—under the guise of fighting drugs.
Raising serious concerns about the credibility of the campaign, Jhinjer asked Arvind Kejriwal to clearly disclose how many big drug lords, organised drug cartels, kingpins and financiers of the drug trade were actually arrested, and how many strong, court-sustainable cases were filed against them. He said Punjabis want to know whether the government had the courage to dismantle powerful drug networks or whether the campaign was limited to rounding up small-time users and street-level peddlers for optics.
He further demanded verified, district-wise data on actual drug seizures, stating that press releases and exaggerated claims cannot substitute hard facts. “A real war on drugs is measured by broken cartels and convicted kingpins, not by posters, slogans and advertisements,” Jhinjer said.
Sarabjeet Singh Jhinjer also pointed out the grim reality that while the AAP government is wasting crores of rupees on advertisements and publicity events, drug-related deaths in Punjab are continuously increasing. He said families across the state are losing their young sons and daughters to overdose and substance abuse, yet the government appears more focused on optics than on saving lives.
“This is the most painful indictment of the AAP government’s failure. If this was truly a ‘Yudh’, the first priority would be to stop deaths, not to print banners,” he said. “The event today once again exposed who truly runs Punjab.
Bhagwant Mann has been reduced to a figurehead, while Arvind Kejriwal controls governance from Delhi. If Kejriwal is serious about saving Punjab’s youth, he must stop hiding behind PR campaigns and answer these questions himself,” Sarabjeet Singh Jhinjer asserted.
Demanding accountability, Jhinjer said the White Paper must also disclose how much additional taxpayers’ money is planned to be wasted on advertisements in the second phase of ‘Yudh Nasheyan Virudh’. “Punjab needs a genuine, result-oriented fight against drugs that targets drug cartels and kingpins at the top, focuses on enforcement, rehabilitation and convictions, and puts an end to rising drug-related deaths. The youth of Punjab deserve action, not slogans,” he said.