Punjab takes on centre on drugs, talks about punjabi identity issues also

Don’t blame Punjab, Centre should stop narcotics supply from other states: Sukhbir
Lashes out at BJP-ruled Goa & Rajasthan for drug culture, calls it national conspiracy
Don’t blame Punjab, Centre should stop narcotics supply from other states: Sukhbir
Deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal at the ‘awareness rally’ against drugs at Attari. photo: Vishal Kumar
Don’t play politics on drug issue: BJP

With the SAD opening up a front against the Centre, of which it is also a part, the BJP today counselled it saying that drug abuse and drug mafia were “serious issues on which politics should be avoided”.

Jupinderjit Singh & PK Jaiswar
Tribune News Service
Gharinda (Amritsar), January 5

Adopting a tough posture on the drugs issue, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today said labelling Punjab as a state of drug addicts was a national conspiracy, akin to the spread of terrorism in the state, to defame the residents, especially Sikhs.

The dharna-cum-awareness rally organised by SAD here against the inflow of drugs also became a platform for the Akalis to reclaim the status of numero uno for the state which had led in making sacrifices in the freedom struggle, post-Independence wars and for being the food bowl of the country.

Speakers also used the impressive rally to highlight the alleged victimisation of the state for generations by claiming that injustice was meted out to Punjab as Punjabi-speaking areas in other states were not given to it and Sikhs were labelled terrorists. Speakers also underlined that the state, and especially the Akalis, have turned out stronger after countering such conspiracies.

Sukhbir led the party leaders in demanding complete sealing of the international border with Pakistan, special allocation in the national Budget for the BSF for use of technology to man the borders, and to include the issue of cross-border smuggling on the agenda for talks with Pakistan. In an indirect attack on the BJP, Sukhbir Badal, Bikram Majithia and other speakers asked if states like Gujarat (home state of PM Modi) or Maharashtra suffered losses due to Partition or wars before and after Independence. Sukhbir specifically mentioned Goa, which has a BJP government, for being the most-drug infested state where all kinds of drugs were available openly. He also accused Rajasthan (again a BJP-led state) for its failure to prevent smuggling of drugs into Punjab. He, however, blamed the past Congress governments in the Centre and Rajasthan for the mess.
While refraining from blaming Narendra Modi, who had talked about the problem as a Lok Sabha poll promise of the party and recently in his radio programme, for the conspiracy, SAD president and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal accused Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi specifically and the Congress party in general for hatching a conspiracy to defame the state.
"Rahul started all this a few years ago when he claimed that 70 per cent of the state's youths were addicts," said Sukhbir. He, in response to a media query, said he welcomed Modi's drive against drugs but it should be a national drive.
"It is tragic that while Punjab grows food for the rest of the country, the other states are growing drugs for sending those to Punjab," he said.
The party leaders, barring Sucha Singh Langah, stayed clear of blaming the Border Security Force (BSF) in their speeches or targeting the BJP, which is launching a drive against drugs from January 22.
They insisted that the BSF needs to be empowered further with latest technology to deal with smuggling from across the border.
Langah sought control over the BSF arguing that the state should have the power to transfer BSF officials and jawans. But other speakers lauded the role of the security agencies while underlining that it was Punjab that fed food to the jawans and Punjabis who faced enemy tanks.
Langah also took a pot-shot at the BJP saying it hurts (the Akalis) when friends (BJP) injure them while attacks of the Congress could be handled.
Majithia, who drew a huge response from the rally held in his home district, took on Congress state president Partap Singh Bajwa saying his family was involved in drug smuggling.
He said the label of drug addiction was a challenge to the state but those who have hatched the conspiracy know that Punjabis respond in equal measure when their self-respect is challenged. He said linking him with drug smugglers was a part of the conspiracy.
first published : http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/nation/don-t-blame-punjab-centre-should-stop-narcotics-supply-from-other-states-sukhbir/26756.html

UK woman’s search in India for dead FB friend’s memoirs, Lily flowers

key words: Love, facebook, internet friendship, Happy Singh, Paola, Human Rights, Drugs mafia, kolkatta jail, painter, sculptor, aftabh ansari

Jupinderjit Singh
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 15
This is a facebook friendship most extraordinaire! A woman has travelled all the way to India from London to trace the memoirs of a Sikh inmate of a Kolkata Jail, who was behind bars for alleged links with an underworld don and some terrorist organisations and was killed by another inmate in May in the jail. The UK woman also wanted to know if Lily flowers bloomed from the seeds she sent him to plant him in the jail.

Paola Bhaartiya Barbuzzi is specifically interested in the auto-biography of Harpreet Singh, alias Happy Singh. She had sent him blank papers for writing his life’s story.

She is also trying to find out the fate of some bulbs (seeds) of Lilly flower she sent him as a gift besides the seeds of other vegetables to grow in the jail.

Though accused of serious crimes and links with terrorists and abduction at their behest, the deceased inmate was popular with jail staff and with Bengali and international media owing to the paintings and sculptors he made in the jail. He attained graduation and MBA degrees while in jail. He was pursuing a degree in law when he was killed. He also imparted yoga training to jail inmates.

Besides, he was also as a poet. He also wrote letters to the government, policemen and human rights activist on drug mafia and abuse of human rights in the jail.

Happy Singh accessed the internet illegally inside the jail and ran a Facebook account under the name of Amandeep through which he came in touch with Paola. “He was a remarkable man and had exceptional talent. I don’t want to go into the issue of whether he was a criminal or not but I be-friended a human being,” said Paola while talking to The Tribune today.

She was here to meet human rights activists and lawyers besides ex-DGP Shashi Kant for seeking help in getting justice for Happy and for safeguarding human rights of jail inmates. “Happy Singh had sent letters to Shashi Kant and others saying his life could be in danger as he was writing on police-criminal nexus which would expose the drug mafia,” she said.

“As he did not have stationery with him, I sent him papers for writing. But none of those were recovered from his cell. I have checked with his aged father and grandparents and two sisters who live in Rajouri Garden, New Delhi. They were not given any writings of Happy,” she said.

Paola is doing community service in London. “I was pursing human rights. I was in touch with a number of human rights activists of India, one of whom was fighting for Happy Singh. I was mesmerized by his paintings and sculptures. He told me about the pitiable condition of inmates in Indian jails. I wanted to do something for them through Happy Singh,” she said.

She recalls that she met him once in March last year. “I met him once in New Delhi where he had come for court hearing in a case against him,” she said, adding that ex-DGP Shashi Kant said Happy was probably killed at the behest of drug mafia. “I suspect that the police-mafia nexus got him killed. We are going to visit Kolkata to investigate the matter further, trace his auto-biography, complete or incomplete, besides approaching the National Human Rights Commission for a CBI inquiry into his death.”

Bhupinder Singh Gill, a Chandigarh based advocate, who is fighting Happy Singh’s case, said he convinced the aged father of Happy Singh with great difficulty to fight for justice.

Killed in Kolkata jail

Happy Singh was convicted in 2001 in an abduction case. He was lodged at Presidency Correctional Home in Kolkata. He was killed by another inmate, Nizammudin, who hit Happy with a brick in the head when he was imparting yoga training in the jail. Jail officials said Nizammudin was mentally unstable.

Bazz Singh Amandeep from Human Rights organization Swatantar Awaz Ludhiana is spearheading the fight for justice in the case, “He may be a criminal or not but he was a gifted artist who was killed in cold blood inside the jail,” he alleged. It was through Amandeep that Happy Singh had met Paola on the Facebook.

Paola said she would return to India soon for following the case.

(first published : http://www.tribuneindia.com/2014/20141016/main5.htm