Youth Akali Dal on its best behaviour

Minna Zutshi

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, January 10

The District Youth Akali Dal (YAD) is in for image makeover. Having been in news for wrong reasons, with reports of the YAD leaders’ involvement in crime cases, the YAD is now eager to change its past image. YAD leader Yadwinder Singh Yadu’s name had figured in the shooting incident at Khanna last year, though eventually he was given a clean chit. The alleged involvement of YAD leaders in the shooting incident at Sarabha Nagar also drew the public censure.

After the recent re-constitution of the YAD, the leaders are making efforts to reinvent the Youth Akali Dal’s public image. The YAD leaders are taking up issues like drug problem and road safety. The Youth Akali Dal (Malwa Zone 3) president, Tarsem Singh Bhinder, while talking to The Tribune, said the YAD would focus on tackling the drug menace in the state. He said the YAD would write to the party high command to honour the sarpanches of the villages that show zero tolerance to drugs. The villages that are able to combat the problem of drugs deserve special recognition. He said, as the YAD Malwa Chief, his priority would be to tackle the drug menace in Ludhiana, Ropar and Moga.

With the Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP alliance in the state on a sticky wicket, both the parties are working overtime to claim a high moral ground on the drug issue. Senior BJP leader and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his “Mann KI Baat” address on December 15, made a special reference to the drug problem in Punjab. Later, the BJP National Secretary, Tarun Chugh, reiterated the BJP’s demand for Cabinet Minister Bikram Singh Majithia’s resignation, citing the summoning of Majithia by the Enforcement Directorate as a valid reason for demanding the Akali Dal leader’s resignation. The SAD dharnas on January 5 to “create awareness about drugs” and the BJP National President Amit Shah’s proposed visit to kick off the party’s anti-drugs campaign in Punjab have further strained the SAD-BJP alliance that is already under duress, though leaders from both the political parties deny any “strain” in the alliance. The YAD leaders’ focus on the drug issue at this juncture assumes significance.

Meanwhile, Bhinder has appealed to political parties not to play politics on the drug issue. “It has become politically expedient to rake up the drug issue and blame other political parties for the problem,” he said.