Give more teeth to War on Drugs Beyond the poppy fields
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Destruction of poppy plantations continues. And it has been going on ever since the then BJP led Government at Imphal launched its ‘War on Drugs’ campaign in 2018. The exact area of poppy plantation that has been razed to the ground has not been spelt out, but most of the poppy plantations have been detected in areas populated by the Kuki-Chin-Zo community. What stands out in the drive is now the participation of the Assam Rifles, for earlier the line maintained by the top guns of the Assam Rifles was, ‘Not our job, but we keep the Government in the loop on the poppy plantation.’ It also stands that poppy plantation has not come about in four or five years. Journalists who undertook a trek through the hills in south east Manipur sometime back in 2005 to meet an important leader of an underground outfit must still remember the poppy plantations they came across in the trek through the hills. And the trek passed through all Kuki inhabited areas ! The said trek has also been captured in the form of a book penned by one of the journalists, who is today unfortunately no more. What the media persons witnessed back in 2005 was but just some stretches of poppy plantations, and situation then was indeed very different and the Golden Triangle did not seem to have made much of a significant inroad into Manipur. Fast forward to 2025 and things have definitely gone from bad to worse but apart from launching the War on Drugs campaign, not much progress seems to have been made on the campaign on the drugs front. Stretches of poppy plantations being destroyed and razed to the ground have become almost daily news with the police releasing a statement on this late into the evening almost everyday. Good move, one would say, but the worrying part is the Government seemingly not progressing from the stage of destroying the poppy plantations to the next logical step. In all the years of targeting poppy plantations, no one, except for two or three village chiefs, have been pulled up. There is nothing to suggest that the Government has seriously taken up any step to move beyond targeting the poppy fields to tackle questions such as, who is financing the plantation ? Who comes to buy the harvested poppy ? Who markets them ? These are logical steps that should follow the act of destroying the poppy fields. Why have these steps not been taken up ? Or is it a matter of investigation that such steps should not be spelt out to the public, lest the bigger fishes are alerted ? What however stands true is, drug smuggling continues unabated, and the huge seizures effected now and then do not seem to have taken the Government anywhere near identifying or busting the cartel/s.
The Government will need to demonstrate that it is serious about the War on Drugs campaign or else it will end as just another catchy slogan, with the law enforcing agencies satisfied with just nabbing some drug pushers here and there. This is not the first time that The Sangai Express is touching on this subject and it wouldn’t be the last either, for the drugs cartel is still there, alive and kicking and the connect between ‘narco-terrorism’, the ongoing violence in Manipur, the large scale poppy cultivation in the hills and the utter failure of the Government to move beyond the arrest of a drug pusher or two now and then cannot be missed. Go for the big guns, those financing, providing the muscle and financial power to the drug business and the War on Drugs will definitely become more than a slogan. It was sometime in the early part of 2023, days before May 3, 2023, that some policemen with drugs worth crores of rupees were held at Pallel. Now no one knows what has happened to that case. Just a few days back 12,80,000 pieces of WY tablets, worth Rs 320 crore were seized at Jiribam. Manipur would certainly want to know the follow up story. More than likely that the three drivers of the trucks were just couriers and the question is, for whom were they transporting the drugs ? Who paid them to take the drugs ? Where were the drugs supposed to be taken ? Or if they were entrusted with the task of handing over the consignments to anyone in particular. Questions which naturally follow.
The Government will need to demonstrate that it is serious about the War on Drugs campaign or else it will end as just another catchy slogan, with the law enforcing agencies satisfied with just nabbing some drug pushers here and there. This is not the first time that The Sangai Express is touching on this subject and it wouldn’t be the last either, for the drugs cartel is still there, alive and kicking and the connect between ‘narco-terrorism’, the ongoing violence in Manipur, the large scale poppy cultivation in the hills and the utter failure of the Government to move beyond the arrest of a drug pusher or two now and then cannot be missed. Go for the big guns, those financing, providing the muscle and financial power to the drug business and the War on Drugs will definitely become more than a slogan. It was sometime in the early part of 2023, days before May 3, 2023, that some policemen with drugs worth crores of rupees were held at Pallel. Now no one knows what has happened to that case. Just a few days back 12,80,000 pieces of WY tablets, worth Rs 320 crore were seized at Jiribam. Manipur would certainly want to know the follow up story. More than likely that the three drivers of the trucks were just couriers and the question is, for whom were they transporting the drugs ? Who paid them to take the drugs ? Where were the drugs supposed to be taken ? Or if they were entrusted with the task of handing over the consignments to anyone in particular. Questions which naturally follow.