Another BJP MP bats for tobacco, claims it has 'medicinal value'

GUWAHATI/NEW DELHI: Two days after two BJP MPs Shyam Charan Gupta and Dilip Gandhi kicked up a row saying there was no link between cancer and tobacco consumption, they were joined in by another party MP, Ram Prasad Sarmah from Tezpur, who said tobacco had 'medicinal' values.

Like Gupta, a beedi baron, and Gandhi, Sarmah, too, is a member of the parliamentary committee on subordinate legislation that is looking into the rules related to tobacco sales. Gandhi is the chairman of the committee. The government deferred its April 1 deadline to increase pictorial warnings on packets containing tobacco items from the existing 40 to 85 per cent following recommendations from this committee.

Sarmah said the committee does not have any medical, chemical or material proof that tobacco consumption causes cancer. "Experts from different scientific fields should give us proof that in Indian environment, tobacco causes cancer. We cannot take any decision based on hearsay. I know there are also properties having herbal and medicinal values," Sarmah told TOI on phone.

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However, the government has distanced itself from the pro-tobacco lobby's remarks. Health Minister J P Nadda asserted that the government was "consistent" on its stand that tobacco consumption has to be reduced and said: "He (Sarmah) is an MP and member of the committee. I would not like to comment on him. The party, the health ministry and I do not subscribe to his view."

But MPs like Sarmah are against the long-pending demand from anti-tobacco activists to increase the size of pictorial warnings on tobacco products. The BJP MP from Tezpur said he knew an 86-year-old person who died of old age ailments, and not cancer, despite smoking 60 cigarettes a day.

"Today, I came across a patient from Narayanpur in Lakhimpur district who has been diagnosed with cancer. I know him very well. He did not smoke, chew or consume tobacco in any form in his life," added Sarmah.

The Aam Aadmi Party has waded into the controversy, saying the MPs' remarks exposed the BJP's "actual agenda and character."

Asking the BJP to clarify whether it stood with the tobacco lobby or cared for people's health, the AAP said in a statement: "All these remarks are a clear case of conflict of interest. The fact that Gupta is into the tobacco industry and also a member of Parliamentary Committee of Subordinate Legislation looking into the rules regarding tobacco sale in the country is a mockery of the Parliamentary standards of legislation and policy making."

The AAP demanded that the Speaker should recall the committee's report and take action against those who continued to be part of the committee without due declaration.

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