Ahead of the 2017 elections in Punjab, the Aam Aadmi Party is homing in on the key problems in the state.
But even that may not explain why party leader Kumar Vishwas has seen fit to release a song written and sung by himself against the rampant drug problem. Titled Ek Nasha: Nashe ke Khilaaf (video above), the song makes thinly veiled references to the Shiromani Akali Dal and suggestively blames the “clouds” for having destroyed the farms, crops, roads, canals and means of livelihood at large.
The real problem is really too serious to be addressed with a song. Punjab has been suffering for several years now, with rising drug usage among adolescents and among the highest in adults globally, according to this Hindustan Times report.
AAP had declared its intention to launch an anti-drug campaign ahead of the assembly elections in Punjab and Delhi, with Vishwas as its face. No one knew that meant a music video.
While AAP chief – and Delhi Chief Minister – Arvind Kejriwal was quoted as saying that the purpose of the video is apolitical, the political attacks are thinly veiled. Lines like “Sukhbir bana Dukhbir, Prakash andhera karne laga” leave little room for doubt that Vishwas is referring to Sukhbir Badal and Parkash Singh Badal, the deputy chief minister and chief minister of the state, respectively.
In the video, a distraught man wanders around his village looking at the impact of drug abuse on his family and others. It also cuts to corrupt policemen and politicians. Astonishingly, the protagonist is reformed when he picks up a "jhaadu" – which, just accidentally, happens to be the symbol of the Aam Aadmi Party – at the end of the video.
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