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Seriously, what is Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Member of Parliament Dilip Kumar Gandhi smoking? It has to be something far more potent than tobacco because no sober person can actually say what he has been saying! The BJP MP, who is the chairperson of the Committee on Subordinate Legislation said: “There is no Indian survey report to prove that tobacco consumption leads to cancer. All the studies are done abroad. Cancer does not happen only because of tobacco. We have to study the Indian context, as four crore people in states like Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh are dependent on bidi-making through Tendupatta.”
This led to India postponing its decision to implement pictorial warnings that cover 85% of tobacco packaging from April 1, 2015.
If there’s one thing that all doctors, scientists and lay people have agreed on it’s that tobacco causes cancer. Is he taking the Hindu DNA thing too seriously? No matter which ethnicity we are part of, our body reacts similarly to external agents. It’s outrageous that they actually have the guts to stop this after torturing us for so long with those horrible pre-movie ads, which actually makes people want to smoke more. Not to mention those annoying disclaimers that turn up every single time a character lights up!
The good MP wrote to Health Minister JP Nadda that ‘the impact of the notification on workers and manufacturers of the bidi/cigarette and tobacco industry in India and its financial impact as a whole on the revenue needs to be examined.’ Understandably, social activists are aghast. Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi, Professor, Head and Neck Surgeon Tata Memorial Hospital, said, ‘Tobacco industry all over the world has admitted that their product is harmful, therefore, they agreed to adopt pack warning as part of their manufacturer liability.’
‘In fact, tobacco is the only consumer product that has no good use whatsoever apart of killing every third consumer. Tobacco is attributable cause of 50% cancers in India and majority of lung or heart diseases,’ he added.
Does plain packaging work?
The logic behind plain packaging is simple, instead of fancy brand logos and designs, the cigarette packets will only be allowed a minuscule space to write the name of the brand while the rest of it will feature graphic warnings about smoking. According to Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi plain packaging has worked for Australia: “It has worked very well in Australia. There is a steep decline in smoking and this strategy is one of the contributors. The cigarette companies in Australia have shut their factories. Legally, product package is the only advertising space left for cigarette industry. If that is also taken away, they will die slowly.”
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