Sena taunts BJP's Dilip Gandhi over tobacco remark

The Shiv Sena on Tuesday taunted Bharatiya Janata Party MP from Ahmednagar Dilip M. Gandhi for delinking cancer and tobacco and said he deserved a Nobel Prize for his remark.

The reference was to the ex-union minister's statement last week that "it would be wrong to conclude that tobacco causes cancer". The remark shocked the medical fraternity in India and around the world.

The Sena said Gandhi went a step further by contending there is no evidence to prove tobacco causes cancer, but it is actually beneficial as it helps in digestion, sending medicos worldwide into a tizzy.

"Don't ask how or when he conducted the research, or its medical basis, but he has rendered a huge favour to the tobacco and 'gutka' lobbies, While posing a major setback to the anti-tobacco activists," the Sena said in an edit in the party mouthpiece 'Saamana' on Tuesday.

"So delighted were the different 'paan' associations by this 'Gandhi-giri' that they travelled all the way to Ahmednagar and felicitated the BJP MP, and the tobacco kings will now worship him as a god in their homes," the Sena said sarcastically.

The edit pointed out that the country's premier institute, Tata Memorial Cancer Hospital in Mumbai has revealed how out of every 100 cases, around two-thirds are linked with tobacco-related cancer, and the situation is similar across India.

Citing examples of prominent cancer victims, the Sena referred to the example of the late Maharashtra deputy chief minister R.R. Patil who chewed tobacco which claimed his life last February, and Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar, who is also suffering from oral cancer arising due to tobacco-chewing habit, but survived due to timely detection.

Blasting Gandhi for the comments, the Shiv Sena said on one hand Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched an anti-tobacco campaign and on the other his party MP is campaigning among people to "bindaas consume tobacco, don't worry about cancer".

The Sena said that Modi has taken the responsibility to clean up the whole nation, but he must tackle those who quietly chew tobacco and spit everywhere in public.