Centre dissociates itself from MP’s tobacco remark
5 April 2015 4:44 AM IST
The central government on Friday "dissociated" itself from comments made by a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) parliamentarian that tobacco does not cause cancer.
BJP's Lok Sabha member from Allahabad Shyama Charan Gupta, who is a member of a parliamentary committee on subordinate legislation on tobacco, has claimed that there was no evidence to show that tobacco causes cancer.
He also alleged that there was a global conspiracy to kill India's beedi industry.
"We are very clear that the party (BJP) and the health ministry do not subscribe to his (Gupta) views. We dissociate with his statement. It is for Parliament to see. We don't consider individual recommendations," union Health Minister JP Nadda said.
"We are very much consistent in our stand of reducing the consumption of tobacco," the minister said, adding that any recommendation by the parliamentary committee would be considered on merit.
Gupta has said, "There are many chain smokers who have not got cancer. This is being done by some foreign bodies. Why does the World Health Organisation (WHO) want to implement this in India and not in the Unites States, which is a better educated country?"
Another BJP MP plays down smoking link to cancer
Amidst a controversy over remarks on smoking by a BJP MP who is a ‘beedi’ baron, another BJP MP Ram Prasad Sarmah on Friday waded into the row, claiming there is no clear proof yet linking cigarette puffing and cancer while wondering whether tobacco contains “herbal medicine”. “Whether cigarette smoking causes cancer or not, there is no full proof till now,” Ram Prasad Sarmah, BJP MP from Tezpur, Assam said.
BJP's Lok Sabha member from Allahabad Shyama Charan Gupta, who is a member of a parliamentary committee on subordinate legislation on tobacco, has claimed that there was no evidence to show that tobacco causes cancer.
He also alleged that there was a global conspiracy to kill India's beedi industry.
"We are very clear that the party (BJP) and the health ministry do not subscribe to his (Gupta) views. We dissociate with his statement. It is for Parliament to see. We don't consider individual recommendations," union Health Minister JP Nadda said.
"We are very much consistent in our stand of reducing the consumption of tobacco," the minister said, adding that any recommendation by the parliamentary committee would be considered on merit.
Gupta has said, "There are many chain smokers who have not got cancer. This is being done by some foreign bodies. Why does the World Health Organisation (WHO) want to implement this in India and not in the Unites States, which is a better educated country?"
Another BJP MP plays down smoking link to cancer
Amidst a controversy over remarks on smoking by a BJP MP who is a ‘beedi’ baron, another BJP MP Ram Prasad Sarmah on Friday waded into the row, claiming there is no clear proof yet linking cigarette puffing and cancer while wondering whether tobacco contains “herbal medicine”. “Whether cigarette smoking causes cancer or not, there is no full proof till now,” Ram Prasad Sarmah, BJP MP from Tezpur, Assam said.
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