NDA ally Ambumani Ramadoss on Friday came out strongly against beedi baron and BJP MP Shyam Charan Gupta's remarks that there are no effects of smoking on health and alleged that a large part of India's beedi lobby is controlled by the politicians.
"I have been a victim of the tobacco lobby. They spent huge money to defeat us in the elections when I had brought in pictorial notification on cigarette and beedi packets," the former Health Minister said.
"Most of the beedi industry is owned by politicians and there is a very strong nexus. The tobacco lobby is one of the strongest in the world," the PMK leader said, adding, "The Members of Parliament should avoid making foolish statements on tobacco. This has put India down on the global front," he said.
"One million people die of tobacco every year. The PM has tweeted that tobacco is bad for health. I urge the PM to intervene and pull up the health ministry to re-notify the increasing of the pictorial warning," he said.
No effects of smoking on health: BJP MP
On Thursday, a controversy broke out over remarks by Gupta, who is a member of a parliamentary committee on tobacco, suggesting that there are "nil" effects of smoking. He had also suggested that the government should make a distinction between smoked and chewed tobacco, claiming that the former was not as harmful.
"I can produce a lot of people in front of you who are chain smokers of beedi and till date they have had no disease, no cancer... You get diabetes due to eating sugar, rice, potatoes. Why don't you write warnings for all these things as well?" said Gupta, a Lok Sabha MP from Allahabad.
Opposition up in smoke
His remarks were criticised by the opposition parties including the Congress, the Samajwadi Party and the CPM which alleged that there was a "conflict of interest" as Gupta was in tobacco trade and also a member of Parliamentary Committee of Subordinate Legislation looking into the rules regarding tobacco sale in the country.
Terming Gupta's inclusion as a member in the committee as "grossly unethical", Congress spokesperson Sanjay Jha said, "Here you have an elected MP, who sits on a panel and clearly does not make disclosures. If he is running a Rs 250 crore worth of business...The conflict of interest is culpable."
Jha further said, "You do not have to be a genius or a Sherlock Holmes to find out that what is the vested interest that he is definitely trying to pursue at the legislative level. This is the kind of risk that as a country we are getting to exposed on account of a very unethical Parliamentarian."
Significantly, Gupta remarks came barely days after panel head Dilip Gandhi's statement that there was no Indian study to confirm that tobacco use leads to cancer, leaving the government embarrassed and rival parties and the medical fraternity gunning for him. Gandhi also defended Gupta, saying he was not the only one in the tobacco trade.
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