Akali Dal benefiting from Punjab drug trade : Rahul Gandhi

The Congress leader's attack signalled the way the Congress plans to move-making the drug menace as one of the major issues in the state where the party wants to bounce back into reckoning.

"The Akali Dal is protecting the drug racket...it is benefiting from the trade," he said at a rally organised to voice protest against the menace and "collapse of law and order" in the state.

"To save Punjab, we need to eliminate the drug menace," Gandhi said.

The Congress Vice President was  joined by all  senior party leaders and workers from the state in the protest.

He said the state was being plagued by  the drugs problem on the one hand and the problems of  law and order and unemployment on the other.
"Modi ji (Prime Minister Narendra Modi), Badal ji (Sukhbir Singh Badal) talk of ease of doing business. In Punjab the only business that is easy to do is of drugs," he said.

"Today they are banning the film Udta Punjab because they don't want to admit the truth, because it is profitable for them...Only the Congress can rid Punjab of drugs. When we raise these issues, they make fun of the Congress."

"They made fun of me for going to meet farmers in Bhatta Parsaul, but farmers know who fought for them and who didn't.
The way we fought against ,the land ordinance, we will fight against the drugs problem," Rahul Gandhi declared.

Amid an uproar over the film censor board forcing multiple cuts on 'Udta Punjab' that deals with the problems of drug abuse, Rahul Gandhi had supported release of the film, saying Punjab indeed has a "crippling drug problem".