From cancer to diabetes: Controversy on tobacco ignited, another setback for BJP

New Delhi, April 2: Days after a BJP MP's shocking statement on tobacco, another MP now ignited the controversy. Shyam Charan Gupta, a member of BJP's Parliamentary Committee, now has been quoted as asking, "Why can't doctors explain why chain smokers don't get cancer?"

Gupta, while speaking to a TV news channel, said, "Sugar is also harmful and causes diabetes - no one can stop that." [Shocking! No Indian study to affirm tobacco products lead to cancer, says BJP MP]

He also argued that tobacco industry in the country unnecessarily has been targetted. Gupta is the owner of a beedi-making business that is worth hundreds of crores.

India delayed to execute its plan for increasing size of pictorial warnings on tobacco products. [Javadekar dismisses BJP MP's remarks on tobacco consumption]

Dilip Gandhi, head of Parliamentary panel on subordinate legislation examining the provisions of Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act, 2003 which had sought deferment of the move, on Monday said all studies in this regard have come from abroad and one should consider the Indian aspect too. [Anti-tobacco campaign Poster woman Sunita Tomar dies]

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 per cent to 85 per cent.

OneIndia News