Just two days after BJP MPs Shyam Charan Gupta and Dilip Gandhi started the row about there being no link between cancer and tobacco, another BJP MP Ram Prasad Sarmah who is also a beedi baron, said tobacco has medicinal value.
Just two days after BJP MPs Shyam Charan Gupta and Dilip Gandhi started the row about there being no link between cancer and tobacco, another BJP MP Ram Prasad Sarmah who is also a beedi baron, said tobacco has medicinal value.
Ram Prasad Sarmah is a BJP MP from Tezpur. He is also a member of Parliamentary committee on subordinate legislation looking into rules related to tobacco sales. Sarmah said the committee has no medical, chemical or material proof that tobacco consumption causes cancer.
According to a leading daily, Sarmah said that experts in the scientific field should give the committee proof that tobacco causes cancer. They cannot take decisions based on hearsay because for he knows there are herbal and medicinal values to tobacco.
BJP government in the centre has distanced itself from all these remarks. Health minister JP Nadda said that government will stand firm on reducing consumption of tobacco.
AAP also waded in the controversy saying these remarks from BJP MPs were a case of conflict of interest . The Arvind Kejriwal-led party further alleged statements made by BJP Parliamentarians in support of tobacco syndicate are not just "grossly unethical" but also raises several questions on effectiveness of Parliamentary functioning.
The AAP also asked the BJP leadership to come clear on its stand in this regard and answer people if it has purposely let its political space and platform to be utilised by vested lobbies to pursue their "selfish interests".
(With Agency Inputs)
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