Punjab, land of the Gurus, Saints, martyrs and the freedom fighters is now in the news for reasons altogether different. For example, reports about number of farmers committing suicide because of outstanding bank loans that they can’t payback or villagers dying of cancer because of groundwater pollution or families losing their breadwinners due to drug addiction, no more evoke that much shock or surprise. It has been accepted as their destiny!

The subject matter of a new Bollywood movie called ‘Udta Punjab’ deals brashly with the drug addiction problem in Punjab. The theme for obvious reasons, brought contradictions between rulers and film makers to the fore. If ruling political bosses and the CBFC (Central Board of Film Certification) tried to maul the movie by imposing 94 cuts before its release, film makers considered it as their right to expose the evil that has made deep inroads in this border state’s social fabric. They knocked the doors of Bombay High Court which cleared movie just with a single cut. It is now being screened worldwide.

Udta Punjab

Drugs in Punjab, is an issue everyone talks about but the producers of Udta Punjab have shown guts to expose the ruination it brought to Punjabis while the rulers looked the other way around.  Once theme of the movie became known, it sent alarm signals to the ruling Akali-BJP government who blamed opposition parties for presenting such a film at this juncture just to defame them. Sukhbir Singh Badal Punjab’s deputy chief minister accused Kejriwal the Delhi Chief Minister and few others as apart of their game to defeat ruling coalition in elections due next year.

CBFC chief Pahlaj Nihalani, branded number of scenes as vulgar and ordered their deletion along with all references to Punjab, names of its cities and words like ministers etc. from the film. Nihalni’s remarks provoked film producers to call CBFC chief a dictator, who kills the body of film by taking its soul out. Mukesh Bhatt another Bollywood film maker said, “It is a dark day for freedom of expression and creativity in the country, Pahlaj Nihalani is a stooge of the government.” Bollywood celebrities like Aamir Khan, Karan Johar, Ram Gopal Varma and others too joined the chorus against authorities who tried to prevent the movie go public.

Punjab-The bitter truth

Had CBFC chief Nihalni and Punjab rulers handled this work of art (as some film critics have termed Udta Punjab) apolitically, the heat and dust it raised would have been avoided. Many film enthusiasts after watching movies didn’t find it much different from other Bollywood stuff. Like any other picture. It has lot of masala; music humor passion truth thrill but unlike others it has a precise message too that perhaps, irked the power that be.
Movie has shown sufferings of the kids and families arising out of the drug addiction. It reminds us of Maqboolpura community, in Amritsar that got the name of ‘widows village’ as many house wives lost their husbands and mothers their sons because of injectable drugs and alcohol.
Referring to vulgarity in Udta Punjab, The Tribune a prominent regional newspaper wrote, “The MC-BC variety of abusive language colours the entire length of the film, but anyone who has been on the street (of Punjab) would tell you the reality is worse. Take the filth out, along with the reference to Punjab, and the commendable piece of commercial art would have lost all bearing.”
Even before Udta Punjab raised controversy about Punjab drug issue, many reports about the disease had appeared but got lost without inviting much public attention. For example, a past AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences) study mentioned about 2.3 lakh people in the state relying on heroin, opium smack doda, phukki and other contra band drugs to get high. A million use painkillers for kick. The AIIMS has found Punjabis spend Rs 7,500 crore annually on drugs, a massive Rs 6,500 crore on heroin alone. However, nothing followed, not even an academic debate for saving Punjab from drug craze.

Thanks to Udta Punjab that brought the matter of endless supply of drugs here with connivance of smugglers, corrupt police officials and the politicians, to focus of the nation.
In the end
Drug addiction level didn’t come down because rulers refuse to acknowledge the extent of its existence in Punjab. When Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal’s attention was drawn to reports about drug being delivered at home just with a phone call, he retorted that it was easier to get drugs in Goa than in Punjab. His claim was soon repudiated by Goa CM Laxmikant Parsekar. Now he says that Delhi is worse off. It however has often been reported that drugs are available even in Punjab prisons, considered to be another safe heaven for Drug mafia.
Gibes about Deputy Chief Minister himself a drug user have many a times gone viral and earlier Bikram Singh Majithia a minister and his close relative was questioned by the ED (Enforcement Directorate) for his contacts with a notorious drug smuggler. That shows the nexus that brought Punjab to its present distress. Mr. Shashi Kant, a former Punjab DGP, has named six politicians, including two SAD ministers, from a list prepared by the state intelligence department under him in 2007.
Drugs without doubt make people mentally, physically, fiscally and morally wreck and could even turn them into criminals. Punjabis known for sacrifices made while defending country’s borders since times immemorial or during India’s freedom struggle and later with their sweat toil and tears turning Punjab into the food bowl of India, now have a part of theirs, living in a void created by narcotics.
This degeneration needs to be stopped, sooner the better. Punjabis having protected others, now in twenty-first century need to be protected from politicians who are out to ruin them for their narrow selfish motives!