The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

PERSPECTIVE

A Tribune Special
Region is becoming a drug haven
Our Deputy Editor Amar Chandel writes on the spectre of addiction

Punjab has been in the grip of paralysing drug addiction for quite some time. To make matters worse, a new dimension has been added to this menace. The ever-increasing haul of heroin shows that the state has become the main transit point for the drug coming from Afghanistan via Pakistan. From Punjab, it finds its way to major cities like Delhi and Mumbai, besides Nepal, and is also smuggled to western countries. Being prohibitively expensive, heroin is hardly used in Punjab, where opium, poppy husk and smack rule the roost.

If only 10 kg of heroin was seized in 2004 and 20 kg in 2005, the figure was as high as 128 kg in 2007. Amritsar district topped the list with 51 kg heroin, while Ludhiana yielded 46 kg. This year, the total seizures are set to be much higher. On the one hand, this is the sign of the good work being done by the enforcement agencies. On the other, it also shows a big jump in the smuggling activities.

A consignment of a staggering 54 kg of heroin seized by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) in Amritsar on September 3 shows the magnitude of the problem. This was one of the biggest drug seizures in the state in decades, with a value of Rs 270 crore in international market. Recently, the DRI had nabbed an Akali leader with 23 kg of heroin in Amritsar.

Things have degenerated to such an extent that heroin has been smuggled out concealed in packets of CDs and DVDs of Gurbani being sent abroad. A son of one of the owners of M/s Chhattar Singh-Jeewan Singh, a 133-year-old publishing house of Amritsar, was arrested on September 11 on the charge of sending heroin to Canada through a private courier. About 5 kg of heroin concealed in three packets of devotional material was seized by the DRI near Phagwara. Many publishing houses have been sending devotional material to foreign countries, especially Canada, the US and the UK.

The BSF has also achieved several successes but the quantity seized by it is far less.

Amritsar airport has become the preferred route for smugglers, particularly because sufficient number of sniffer dogs and adequate equipment like ion scanner are not available there.

An unholy alliance between a few corrupt politicians, policemen and drug mafia has made sure that only a small portion of this hydra-headed monster is exposed. Experts aver that the recoveries that are made are not even 5 per cent of the actual volume of drugs floating around.

Workers from both the Congress and the Akali Dal have been arrested with banned drugs. One interesting and helpful sign is that once they are caught parties try to dissociate themselves from them, instead of backing them. That is what happened in the case of Parshottam Lal Sondhi, general secretary of the Youth Akali Dal, Jalandhar wing, when he was arrested with 23 kg of heroin near the Amritsar airport. The Akali Dal initially even refused to admit that he belonged to the party.

Whatever the public posture might be, such a huge racket is thriving mainly because of the patronage of political bigwigs.

Debt-ridden Punjabi youth are being drawn to work as couriers. With each courier getting up to Rs 10,000 per packet of heroin smuggled, there are any number of people willing to risk their lives. A number of women belonging to poor families are also being used as couriers

Most of the drugs come through the Indo-Pakistan border. The BSF is spread thin to face the challenge of the determined smugglers who find innovative ways to send in the drugs. They insert plastic pipes of large diameters into the electrified fences to push contraband to the Indian side. Earlier they used to throw the drug packets over the fence but it was later discontinued as BSF jawans were able to catch them often. On most occasions, smugglers are actively supported by Pakistan’s ISI.

Many residents of remote border villages near the fence are engaged in this illegal trade. Politicians have to do a tight-rope walk. Some farmers raise a hue and cry that they should be allowed to go across the fence to their fields as early as 5 am and return late in the evening. They have a point because agricultural operations cannot be completed during day time. But the longer hours become a nightmare for security agencies. It is well nigh impossible to detect one or two packets of drugs concealed properly in a loaded trolley.

There are a large number of agencies engaged in keeping a check on smuggling like the BSF, Customs, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence and the Narcotics Control Bureau. But adequate coordination among them is lacking. Instead of operating in tandem, they at times work at cross-purposes due to petty rivalries, with the result that smugglers slip out. If only they can share intelligence properly, the menace can be better controlled. When a particular company of the BSF stays at one place for too long, corruption level tends to rise.

Afghanistan today supplies nearly 92 per cent of the world’s heroin. The recent spurt in Punjab has been caused by bumper opium crop in the Helmand region. Most of the poppy cultivation is in southern Afghanistan, close to the Pakistan border. With traditional routes of supply of drugs to the West having been blocked under American and NATO control, bulk of the drugs are travelling towards Pakistan and from there to India.

The more serious aspect is that the money generated by drug smuggling is used for promoting terrorism. The ISI supporting the insurgents gives them consignments of drugs along with weapons. So, the drug money is also an indicator of the extremist threat that is spreading under the surface.

Security agencies insist that the only way to deter the smugglers is to make laws even more stringent. They point out that smugglers do not dare to go towards Thailand and certain Arabian countries, because they know that the recovery of drugs can lead to death penalty. But they completely forget that in Punjab it has been routine for certain policemen to haul an inconvenient person over the coals by falsely showing recovery of drugs from him. In the hands of such cops, a stringent law becomes a counter-productive tool.

The whole thing boils down to keeping the men who control the levers of power above board. When they join the law-breakers, there is hardly any chance of defeating the drug menace. What is more important is certainty of punishment than its severity.

To know what the demon of drug addiction can do to a person, family and society, one has to only visit Maqboolpura, an urban slum of Amritsar. It is inhabited mainly by dalit workers, comprising the poorest of the lot. What they have in common besides the poverty is rampant drug abuse.

There have been more than 195 deaths in the past nine years, and the widows of Maqboolpura have none to look up to except some good Samaritans and NGOs.

They are lucky to have even that safety net. There are many other villages in Punjab and Haryana where the problem is as acute and yet there is no help whatsoever coming forth. About 70 per cent of the population of Haryana’s Sirsa district bordering Punjab and Rajasthan is addicted to drugs in early teens (14 years). Such early addiction is the greatest cause of worry.

Besides the highest per capita consumption of alcohol, Punjab is also high on smack, ganja, cocaine, poppy husk, painkillers, cough suppressants and sedative injections. The use of cocaine is particularly on the rise in big cities. Youths in the age group 18 to 30 are the biggest consumers of drugs in the state. According to a detailed survey by the Institute for Development and Communication (IDC), Chandigarh, every third boy and tenth girl student in the state has had drugs.

Drug peddling is not confined to inhabitants of slums. Many middle-class pushers are in business – postgraduate students, ex-servicemen, politicians and even policemen. Only last month, the Mohali police recovered 1.23 kg of cocaine worth Rs 1.25 crore from Dara Singh, an ex-serviceman, who told the police that he got it from a Haryana Deputy Superintendent of Police Gurdarshan Singh Sodhi, who further named a Head Constable and a Constable of the Rajasthan Armed Police as sources for the contraband.

In July, the Narcotics Control Bureau caught Harpal Singh alias Raju, a postgraduate student, with 3.5 kg of heroin and a kilogram of smack. During investigation, it was found that a Sub-Inspector and four head constables of the Chandigarh Police were involved in the peddling of drugs and used to transport consignments out of Chandigarh. They also took bribes from peddlers on a monthly basis to let them carry on their “business”. On the long list of Harpal’s customers were at least 60 police officers and bureaucrats and their kin.

Addiction is also rampant among policemen. In Tarn Taran, 178 policemen were found to have contracted Hepatitis B and C and HIV virus due to unclean syringes and unsafe sex practices. As many as 20 policemen from Mohali district enrolled themselves at the Indian Red Cross society’s drug de-addiction centre in Khanpur this year. Last year, 25 of them attended the month-long course.

While heroin comes from abroad, a lot of opium finds its way into Punjab from the neighbouring Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and also from Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. India is one of the few countries which permit cultivation of opium for essential research in pharmacy.

Farmers have been growing opium for years in Chittorgarh, Kota and Jhalawad areas of Rajasthan as per the quota fixed by the government. These enter Haryana and Punjab with the blessings of mafia, politicians, excise department officials, opium growers and contractors of Rajasthan. Only a few politicians can honestly claim that they have not distributed opium or bhukki or other such intoxicants to garner votes. Indulging in smuggling on a large scale is considered the next logical step.

If the politicians use the drugs to buy votes, these are also routinely given by landlords to labourers working on their farms. These landless migrants from other states are either stuck here because of the addiction or carry the menace back to their states.

While poppy husk is poor man’s poison at about Rs 1500 to 2500 per kg, 1 kg of opium may cost upwards of Rs 35,000. For a kg of smack, they shell out as much as Rs 4 lakh. Once the youth are hooked they will do anything – theft, robbery or murder — to get their daily fix.

Then they also take other sedatives and painkiller tablets. There are some who are so badly affected that they take hundreds of tablets per day. Many others take inhalants like white ink, petrol fumes and Iodex.

According to a survey by the Ministry of Social Welfare and the UN International Drugs Control Programme, at 3.4 per cent, consumption of opiads in the region (Punjab-Haryana-Chandigarh) is three times the national average. Opiads include opium, smack and heroin.

While the figure for alcohol consumption is 26 per cent at the national level, it is as high as 49.8 per cent in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh. It will not be an exaggeration to say that a whole generation is withering away due to this level of addiction. The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 is pretty comprehensive but even that has not been able to deter the rampant usage of drugs.

There is an alarming shift from smoking or chasing to intravenous drug use (IDU). This shift brings with it a potential risk of HIV. Seven to 14 per cent of all HIV/AIDS is transmitted through IDU. Over one-tenth of 20,000 intravenous drug users in Punjab are HIV+.

Leave alone fighting and winning the war against drugs, the police is not even able to stop their entry into prisons. It is common knowledge that drugs are freely used behind bars. Apparently, all this cannot happen without the help of the security staff itself. Some of them have virtually become drug dealers. In fact, most of the riots in jails are triggered by the authorities’ attempts to curb the supply.

The police was given unbridled powers during terrorism days. The residual power is still considerable and is grossly misused to conduct such activities. The government’s first attempt should be to set its own house in order and at least ensure that its own men do not contribute to the mess. But then, some use their official position only as a front to carry on their lethal business.

OPED

Combating terror
Internal security is as vital as territorial integrity
by P.S. Ramamohan Rao

Even as terrorist strikes occur with dreadfully monotonous regularity, India continues its leisurely debate whether additional sinews of law and organisation are needed to combat terror. A regrettable irony of the debate is that the voice of those actually fighting terror is not heard.

The core of the Indian criminal justice system devised by the British in the second half of the 19th Century, consists of the Indian Penal Code, the Criminal Procedure Code, the Indian Evidence Act and the Indian Police Act.

The Indian Evidence Act was unique in laying down what would be admissible as evidence in court, while its counterparts in western democracies stipulated what is not admissible. One astounding consequence of this is that even today a confession of an accused before a police officer of however high a rank, is not admissible in evidence in court but a confession before an Excise Constable or a Forest Guard will be admissible.

Now consider the Criminal Procedure Code. A statement of a witness recorded by a police officer can’t be signed nor can it be used in court except to assail the veracity and reliability of the witness in the event of his disposition being at variance with the police version. During investigation which follows immediately after the occurrence of a crime, a witness would be free from extraneous influences and is expected to state the truth. By the time the trial commences he can be subject to pressures and induced to retract from truth to help the accused. Yet, the first statement has no utility except to help the offender.

A police officer can conduct searches without warrant from a magistrate only for inanimate objects and not for human beings. If one were to go by the principle of distrust of the police, planting of inanimate objects is far easier than planting of human beings. Any person arrested by the police has to be produced in the nearest court within 24 hours. This constraint is far from conducive to the success of investigations, in cases of conspiracy and terror. To give a real life example, without revealing identity a terror suspect reveals a plan to attack a target four days later or about a secret meeting of top leaders of a banned organization five days hence. If he were to be produced in court within 24 hours, there is no way that these leads can be pursued to apprehend the remaining terrorists and cripple the organisation.

Terrorist organisations have virtually impenetrable security and secrecy rings (called “Tech Apparatus”) which can’t be broken by normal procedures of criminal investigation. One may recall how the announcement by All India Radio of the dispatch of NSG commandos to rescue seven IAS officers abducted by Naxalites in Andhra Pradesh in 1987 put paid to the operation itself. The procedural constraints on the police to secure police custody, for sufficiently long duration, of suspects and accused for patient and intelligent interrogation are the principal reasons for illegal detentions, police torture and even fake encounters.

The bail provisions in the Criminal Procedure Code have made a travesty of trials. Jumping bail and willful absence in court on dates of hearing are the twin tactics employed by the Naxalites in Andhra Pradesh to protract trial; utilise the time so gained to win over or liquidate key witnesses and thereby frustrate the ends of justice. One conspiracy case in AP took 15 years to finally end in acquittal.

For all its durability, the Indian Penal Code is grossly outdated. While there are 25 sections on counterfeiting of coins its broad sweep does not cover forging of cheques, money laundering, fake currency and passports, cyber crime and the like all of which are tools of trade for the terrorist. The Indian Arms Act, Explosives Act, Telegraph Act etc., don’t have answers to their abuse by the terrorists.

It is disingenuous to argue that since India follows British jurisprudence which presumes the innocence of a person till he is proved guilty and permits a hundred guilty to escape so that not a single innocent person is punished, we should be content with the available laws. British themselves, incorporated three sections in the Indian Penal Code, which made even preparation to commit an offence punishable (dacoity, waging war against the Govt. of India etc.).

Before that, the British armed themselves with the Thuggee Act and the Thuggee Bureau (which became the Intelligence Bureau) to stamp out the thuggee menace in Gangetic India. During and after the ‘Mutiny’, Indian ‘Mutineers’ were blown off the mouths of heavy guns without trial. A slew of Criminal Law Amendment Acts were similarly legislated to tackle terrorist violence around the turn of the 20th century.

If the existing arrangements are adequate, we should have by now exorcised terror or at least tamed it. Examples of the US and other Western countries including the UK, which were much later entrants into the war against terror would strongly suggest that not only are special and draconian laws imperative but individual rights and conveniences may have to be subordinated to the objective of taming terror. India can’t argue that these countries are less devoted to fundamental freedoms or that the threat of terror is more serious for them.

Consider India’s own record. None can argue that the country’s security environment in the first two decades of the Republic was under graver threat than now or that Prime Minister Nehru was less of a democrat than those who have been at the helm after him. Yet he had brought the preventive detention law on the statute book and did not repeal it in his lifetime. The continued existence of special laws in some states even after the repeal of POTA and the anxious initiatives of others to have similar legislation indicate a national consensus on the issue.

When unlawful activities of an organisation have ramifications transcending state boundaries, a Central agency will ensure better direction and coordination of investigations, integration of evidence, collation of intelligence and storage and retrieval of information. It is almost axiomatic that terrorist masterminds hide and operate far away from targets of terror, while the states in which they hide believe in “letting sleeping dogs lie”. The rationale for a Central agency is the same as had led to the creation of the United Nations and Interpol.

Internal security is as vital as territorial integrity to a country’s well being and prestige. A nation can ignore professional advice and experience in such a matter only to its disadvantage.

The writer is a former Governor of Tamil Nadu

Profile
Bhupen: A legend in his lifetime
by Harihar Swarup

Ballad singer Bhupen Hazarika does not need an award to establish his credentials, having achieved so much in his 83-year-long life. So, when the Assam government announced Asom Ratna Award to him, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi had done more honour to him than the recipient. The only significance of Asom Ratna is that it was instituted on August 15 this year, and the first to be honoured is Hazarika, winner of the prestigious Dada Saheb Phalke Award. Hazarika has established Assam’s colourful culture and heritage through his creative works of musical compositions and performance worldwide.

Born in upper Assam’s Sadiya in 1926, Bhupen began his career as a child actor in the second talkie film Indr. He represented India in Berlin at the World Conference of Composers in 1939. He wrote and sang his first song at the age of 10 using compositions as an instrument of social change. A former chairman of Sangeet Natak Akademi, he was given the honour of inaugurating the World Seminar in Congress Hall with his songs on the liberation of Bangladesh.

Bhupen has become a legend in his lifetime but left his innumerable admirers bewildered when he decided to join the BJP on the eve of the last general election. Bhupen had always desisted bondage of a political party even though he was an unattached member of the Assam Assembly from 1967 to 1972. Having come to be known as India’s cultural icon in south Asia, he himself admits that he had never joined a political party before for obvious reasons. What has inspired him to join the BJP when he was 78? He said he was impressed by the Vajpayee government’s performance.

As a matter of fact, Bhupen is not cut out for the weird world of politics. This was, perhaps, the reason that, instead of facing a barrage of questions at the BJP’s headquarters as others entrants do, he was asked to render a song. And he obliged the reporters as the jam-packed briefing hall was filled with melody of his famous song, O Ganga, tum bhati ho kyun.

The song was inspired by the great black American singer Paul Robeson’s powerful rendition of the song Ole (old) man River. Bhupen created his own moving ode to the Brahmaputra. During his days as research scholar in audio-visual and mass communication in the Columbia University, Bhupen and Robeson became close friends. The black singer’s crusade for social justice and black pride permeated Bhupen’s own worldview.

Rarely, so many qualities combine in one person as in Bhupen: he is bard and balladeer, poet and politician, singer, lyricist, musician and filmmaker. But above all these he is a communicator of romance, passion, universalism and humanism. He is as lovable in Bangladesh as in Assam. His song on Bangladesh’s liberation Joy, Joy Naba Jata Bangladesh (hail the newborn Bangladesh) was on every Bengali’s lips in early seventies. Bhupen is not only prolific in Assamese and Bengali but his rich voice is also at ease with Hindi, Urdu and English.

He is an icon in Nepal too and his links to Nepalese is traced to Tejpur — his birth place — having a sizeable population of the people of Nepalese origin. When his father died, Bhupen was given a black Nepalese cap to wear to hide his tonsured head. He began wearing the cap since then and a khukri pin that adorns his cap which was gifted by his friends and admirers in Nepal.

Bhupen often recounts his experience in the Assam Assembly full of anecdotes. He once prompted a fellow MLA to interrupt stalwart Dalal Baruah, who was the leader of the opposition, by raising a point of order. The MLA, a simpleton, interrupted Baruah and began yelling point of order…point of order. When the Speaker asked on what ground, the MLA did not know what to say and fumbled. Bhupen whispered to him, “Say, bad grammar”. The MLA followed the advise in letter and spirit; the whole house burst into laughter and Baruah visibly embarrassed.

On Record
No place for TADA or POTA, says Gill
by Ajay Banerjee

K.P.S. Gill

Now in his mid-seventies, the man has not lost the zest for work. The typical dry humour remains and so does the handle-bar moustache with his trademark twirl. In an interview to The Sunday Tribune, former DGP of Punjab Police KPS Gill, who firmly tackled terrorism in Punjab, says that there is no place in society for laws like the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act (TADA) or the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) as these had immense scope for misuse. Sane word of advice for policymakers who are now under immense pressure to come out with stricter laws.

Gill speaks on several security-related issues including intelligence gathering on hardcore terrorists. In a lighter moment, the 1957 Assam cadre IPS officer, who was also Security Adviser to the Gujarat government, said he would like to return to work as a police station in-charge because cops are writing bad FIRs which, he says, “is the root cause of poor conviction rate”.

Excerpts:

Q: Do we need a new stringent law to act against terror?

A: There is absolutely no room for laws like TADA and POTA in society. Even earlier, we had a tough time in keeping the corrupt and the unscrupulous among the police force on the right path. These anti-terror laws had immense scope for misuse. Any new draconian Act will create more terrorists as these create a sense of palpable injustice.

Q: But why not have a stricter law?

A: It is not possible to have such a law today. Can you imagine the scenario if Acts like TADA or POTA were to be in force in states like Punjab today? Properties would be usurped, people would be put behind bars and political scores would be settled using such draconian laws. It will be impossible to control. Why do we need such stringent laws to control society at large? It was the Pakistan-backed ISI that was creating trouble and to counter it you put in such regressive laws for the country’s own citizens. It defies logic. Such laws only show the state as an unjust entity.

Q: Then what does the country need and what should the security agencies do?

A: Deal with terrorists very sternly. The existing laws are enough. Arrest the right man. If needed, shoot, but shoot at the right man – the terrorist. If a terrorist shoots at the public, the police or uses bombs, let the police shoot at him, let it happen. But no bullet should hit the wrong target; no bullet should be fired at an innocent person. Deal with all ISI modules at a level that would instil a fear that is worse than TADA or POTA. Deal on a case-to-case basis and not allow security forces any blanket permission. In the name of human rights violations, the nation should stop targeting police officers who did good work. It has happened in Punjab and also in Gujarat. This is lowering the morale of the officers and men who risk their own lives for the country. This should be stopped.

Q: What about having a Central agency to probe all terror-related offences?

A: There is no need for such an agency. Just expand the existing Intelligence Bureau with more man powers to gather more information and pass it on to the states. Let the state police investigate cases of terror. In addition to information gathering, there is need for Central coordination in the case of equipment. Have a tight-knit group that keeps abreast of the latest technology. The Ministry of Home Affairs should buy all equipment and supply to the intelligence wing of the state police forces.

Q: Do you see the serial blasts as intelligence failure?

A: No. We need to have more officer-oriented snopping. If the modern-day terrorist is tech savvy, do you expect a constable, who is no more than a matriculate, to match the technical skills? All terrorist organisations need fresh recruits, once the source of recruiting is found the task is done. For all this, intelligence gathering capabilities have to be augmented.

Q: Are the agencies overworked and over-stretched while being under-manned ?

A: The gathering of political intelligence should be taken away from the Intelligence Bureau or the units of the state police forces. Let them concentrate on the real work and all this political input business should be handled by private agencies. During my time as DGP, I never sent out any bit of information on political inputs; the focus was on terrorism only. Free the boys from all other work and then make them accountable.

Q: What about thana-level policing?

A: Successful police work has always been the outcome of efficiency of the police stations. Equip them and train them. Make the selection of SHOs very stringent. No sifarish should be entertained in the posting of the SHO by anyone. If you just implement the Police Act in toto, it will sort out all matters.