Dilip Kumar Gandhi, BJP MP

Dilip Kumar Gandhi is chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Subordinate Legislation, a body that most Indians had no clue about. But thanks to him and an astonishing statement of his, the Committee has joined the list of infamous institutions that politicians use to cater to special interests. In this case, it happens to be the tobacco lobby.

The Union Health Ministry had decided to increase the size of the graphic warning that ‘Smoking Kills’ (alongwith the chest image) from 40 to 85 per cent of every cigarette pack’s face. But then the Committee stepped in and sent a letter saying that the move should be postponed. The Ministry agreed. Gandhi didn’t help matters when he told the media that there was no study that linked tobacco consumption to cancer among Indians. “All studies are done abroad… We have to study the Indian context,” Gandhi said.

It was quite a silly claim to make, given the vast amounts of research that has been done on it. Also, an American lung is not really different from an Indian one. If tobacco causes cancer there, it will in India too. Gandhi’s statement just reflects the state of knowledge among the country’s Parliamentarians today; even common sense seems to elude many of them.

BJP MPcancerDilip Kumar Gandhitobacco