The intoxicating world of drugs
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Before the furore created by the narcotic jihad comment of the Pala bishop of the Catholic sabha died down in Kerala, came the sensational news of the drug bust involving Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan and his friends during a narcotic-involving party aboard a luxury cruiser. However, curiously enough in either case, it is not the drug mafia gaining ground across the country that is the primary concern within the state or across the country.The Bishop of Pala expressed concern not about the spread of drugs and rampant criminality facing Kerala, but about the imaginary jihad of Muslim youths misleading Christian women and converting them to Islam using drugs. The statement does not prove any concern on the Bishop's part for the new generation of Hindus, Muslims, Christians and secularists who have become addicted to drugs and the very threat they pose to the society. Similarly, the narcotics threat that is engulfing the world of Indian cinema, regardless of the Bollywood-Mollywood-Kollywood distinction, is not the focus in the news about drugs found in the luxury ship raid in Mumbai, but the involvement of the son of Hindi film star Shah Rukh Khan. The general public was taken aback when it was revealed that the father had given his son consent at an early age that he had no complaints whether he wanted to drink alcohol or drugs or have sex if he wanted to.
For those who are conscious, prudent and thoughtful, it is clear that this is not the crux of the problem. The police and intelligence had carefully reported in time that no such jihad had taken place in Kerala as the Bishop had cautioned about. This was also confirmed by a spokesperson of the Modi government in Parliament. State Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan also quoted statistics to affirm that there was no information that Love Jihad or Narcotic Jihad had taken place. If the bishop or others involved are not yet ready to back down, the reason and motivation for that should be further investigated. Thus it has come to light through numerous incidents that men and women from the film world have been the main source of deadly and expensive drugs that form a main component of night parties in cities like Kochi, Bangalore and Mumbai. Such cases fade away within days and are forgotten without any one being punished.
The current state of the Indian judiciary is that it is not difficult for those with money and influence to shake off any dangerous case. But everyday experiences are enough to realize the impact of this situation on family life and the social system. Women, children and elderly parents are constantly subjected to severe abuse and brutal murder. Violations are on the rise even as rules tighten. Such atrocities should not have been repeated after the enactment of the Pocso Act by the Parliament in light of the Nirbhaya case which shocked the country. But what we see later is that similar tragedies become part of everyday life. If even educated youth dare to commit atrocities by deliberately losing consciousness by spending money, it speaks for the depth of depravity that the country has reached.
On September 16, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence seized three tonnes of heroin from the warehouse of Mundra port, Gujarat the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, and controlled by Adani Group, the second largest multinational corporation in the country. The Rs 21,000 crore narcotics hoard is said to be the largest smuggling collection in history. An investigation is underway into who had sent it to who and how. It is suspected that the heroin was smuggled into Mundra via Iran-Pakistan from Afghanistan, the world's largest producer of opium. Though this is the first case to be caught, it is not proven yet that drugs have not been smuggled through ports. But in the end, it has become the political weapon of the Congress-BJP war. On April 19, the navy seized a fishing boat that had reached Kozhikode via the Arabian Sea with Rs 300 crore worth of banned drugs. A Zambian woman was caught with Rs 30 crore worth of heroin in Karipur in recent days. It would be really shocking to know that our adolescent and young generation on and off the campuses are consumers of highly lethal MDMA, which can give intoxication for 48 hours even with a microgram. This being so, what is needed to rescue generations and to rehabilitate them is not mutual mud-slinging but a collective fight across the government-opposition divide and above religious-community-political differences. The sooner every one recognises this, the better.
