Mann Hits Back at Shah: 'Now Elections Have Come, You Worry About Punjab'ਮਾਨ ਦਾ ਸ਼ਾਹ ਨੂੰ ਜਵਾਬ: 'ਹੁਣ ਚੋਣਾਂ ਆਈਆਂ ਤਾਂ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਦਾ ਫ਼ਿਕਰ'

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann hit back at Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday evening, saying "now that the elections have come, you are worried about Punjab". Hours earlier Shah had set a deadline of 31 December 2029 to rid the state of the drug trade, and the AAP government's Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema also answered him.

What Mann said

According to The Times of India, citing ANI, Mann asked why Shah did not act when drugs boomed under the Akali Dal-BJP government between 2007 and 2017. "You can come here, but don't do politics here," he said, adding that the state's war on drugs will continue. India Today reported that he accused the Centre of politicising the issue during an election season and asked why Shah had not come earlier to share the grief of affected families.

The anti-drone and gangster questions

Mann said drugs still cross in from Pakistan despite the Border Security Force's presence, and asked why the Centre had not helped Punjab install an anti-drone system. He also pointed to drug seizures in Gujarat and Rajasthan and called Haryana a nursery for gangsters, India Today said. These are Mann's allegations, and the BJP had not responded to them in the reports we opened.

Cheema's reply on drug supply chains

In a statement carried by The Hindu and PTI, Cheema said the Centre must stop treating Punjab's drug crisis as a "political opportunity". He claimed that factories making prescription drugs misused as intoxicants are in Haryana, Baddi in Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Ahmedabad, not in Punjab. He said the Punjab health department wrote to the Centre on 31 October 2025 and 21 September 2026 asking that these medicines be added to the NDPS Act schedule.

What Shah had said earlier

Shah met the families of Bikramjit Singh, Gulzar Singh and Parvinder Singh Jhota, said the CBI would find those behind the killings, and asked Mann to hand the other two cases to the agency. Mann had already given the Jhota case to the CBI that morning. Read our earlier reports on the Shah visit and the CBI hand-over of the Jhota case.

Why did Bhagwant Mann criticise Amit Shah?

Mann accused Shah of politicising Punjab's drug problem ahead of elections and asked why the Centre had not supported an anti-drone system on the border.

What did Harpal Cheema say?

Cheema said the Centre ignores the sources of synthetic and prescription drugs located in states ruled by the BJP and the Congress, and asked it to close legal gaps.

What deadline did Amit Shah set for a drug-free Punjab?

Shah said Punjab would be free from the drug trade by 31 December 2029.