Union Minister Rijiju calls for a war against drug

Union Minister Kiren Rijiju today said the fight against drug scourge should be taken as a war to save the youth of the country from going astray and appealed to all the political parties to unite on the issue.
"We should take up this (drug) issue as a war or else an entire generation will be destroyed," the Minister of State for Home Affairs said addressing a seminar here.
He appealed to the parties not to politicise the drug issue, saying the scourge not only affects the individual concerned, but has the potential to make entire country "sick".
"We should not make it a political issue, it pertains to entire country, it's a national issue," he said, adding that," I have seen that the drug issue is sometimes given a political colour. We all have to think about this."

"When drugs make their way into South-East Asia, from where do these come, Pakistan, Afghanistan, we talk about the golden triangle, making their way through Punjab. There are other places as well," he said.
The minister was addressing a seminar here organised by Forum for Awareness of National Security (FANS), on the topic 'Drug trade and its implications on national security' and 'Abuse of women: Challenges and responses'.

Rijiju said the drug menace was prevalent everywhere.
"At some places, its effect is less, but at other places its impact is big," he said.
"Drugs not only affect a person or a youth but make the entire country sick. So, therefore, we need to understand it in a holistic way. This is a big challenge before us," he said.

The Minister said that to think that this menace can be tackled by Government alone will not be sufficient. "We will have to take it up as a campaign and involve NGOs too," he said.
Rijiju also said that initially youth start taking drugs thinking it is fun but soon they are totally overpowered by the scourge. "They will not be able to tell when they get totally involved and struggle to come out of it".
The minister said that India's asset is its youth power and if they go astray it will have adverse affects.
"When we talk about India and its future, we often get to hear that future of our country is bright, it is an emerging power, which can face China and in times to come stand at par with the United States. Such things are often a topic of discussion among the experts.

"But, when our entire young generation will become weak, discussing such a thing will become meaningless. Today, when we say that our country's majority population are youth, but at the same time we should think if this 65 per cent which forms bulk of our population, goes astray, then what will happen," he asked.