Mumbai: Amid a raging debate over the size of pictorial warning on tobacco products, Shiv Sena on Tuesday hit out at Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Dilip Gandhi for his controversial comments.
Taking a dig at Gandhi, who heads the parliamentary panel on subordinate legislation on tobacco, an editorial in Sena's mouthpiece Saamna has said the BJP MP should be awarded a Nobel Prize for his comments that there was no evidence linking tobacco with cancer.
The Sena said Gandhi went a step further by contending there is no evidence to prove tobacco causes cancer, but it is actually beneficial as it helps in digestion, sending medicos worldwide into a tizzy.
"Don't ask how or when he conducted the research, or its medical basis, but he has rendered a huge favour to the tobacco and 'gutka' lobbies, While posing a major setback to the anti-tobacco activists," the Sena said in an edit in the party mouthpiece 'Saamana' on Tuesday.
"So delighted were the different 'paan' associations by this 'Gandhi-giri' that they travelled all the way to Ahmednagar and felicitated the BJP MP, and the tobacco kings will now worship him as a god in their homes," the Sena said sarcastically.
"Out of 100 people admitted in Mumbai's Tata hospital, 60-65 suffer from cancer due to consuming tobacco. Doctors and health experts have time and again explained the harmful effects of tobacco. On one hand, PM Modi is talking against tobacco and on the other, his MP asks people to fearlessly consume tobacco," the Sena said.
"The PM has taken a broom to clean streets of dirt. But who will clean the garbage coming out of people's mouths?" it questioned.
Dilip Gandhi, head of Parliamentary panel on subordinate legislation examining the provisions of Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act, 2003, had earlier said there was no Indian study to confirm that use of tobacco products leads to cancer. He had also added that all studies in this regard have come from abroad and one should consider the Indian aspect too.
The Parliamentary Committee, which Gandhi -- a BJP MP from Maharashtra heads -- had "strongly" urged the government to keep on hold its proposal to increase the size of pictorial warnings on tobacco packets from 40 percent to 85 percent.
Meanwhile, sources in the Health Ministry said the government intended to go ahead with 85 percent coverage as far as pictorial warnings were concerned.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has favoured bigger pictorial warning on tobacco products and the health ministry now intends to cover 85 percent of the display area of beedi, cigarette and chewable tobacco packets, sources said on Saturday.
Modi has endorsed larger pictorial warnings on tobacco products and asked Health Minister JP Nadda to appoint a committee to look into the matter, sources added.
The new pictorial warning rules, which were to be implemented from April 1, have been kept in abeyance till the panel discusses the issue, evoking criticism from many that government has succumbed to tobacco lobby even as the issue of conflict of interest was raised by them.
Government had said that it will take a "measured and responsible" decision on the issue, with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley making it clear that the decision of the government in the matter will not be based on the opinions of individuals.
