Health Minister JP Nadda said an earlier decision to cover 85 per cent of a cigarette packet with warnings would miss its scheduled April rollout (AFP photo)
Delaying bigger health warnings on cigarette packets "has no precedent" and "may not stand legal scrutiny," was what the Health Ministry advised. But two days later, in March, Health Minister JP Nadda said an earlier decision to cover 85% of a cigarette packet with warnings would miss its scheduled April rollout.
The deferral was announced after a parliamentary committee said it needs to review how the tobacco industry will be affected by the directive. Before this was publicly disclosed, in an internal note accessed exclusively by NDTV, the Health Ministry concluded, "the linking of livelihood and consultations with other ministries before enforcing bigger pictorial warnings may not stand legal scrutiny".
That was not a false alarm. Last month, the Rajasthan High Court told the government to get cracking with the bigger health warnings, and asked for the government's response within four weeks.
The parliamentary committee which has blocked the implementation of the larger graphics on tobacco packaging is headed by Dilip Gandhi of the BJP, who says no local studies have been conducted to link smoking with cancer. Even before his committee's report was submitted, Mr Gandhi wrote twice to Health Minister JP Nadda, asking for the new rules to be delayed. Documents of the Health Ministry accessed by NDTV list Pakistan, Sri Lanka as countries that have enlarged health warnings on tobacco products; arguing against that, Mr Gandhi, in his letters, cites the example of Malawi.
Health activists argue bigger health warnings on cigarette packets will reduce smoking in India, where up to 900,000 die every year from tobacco-related diseases.
Health Minister Nadda has so far supported the new rules publicly, but said they would only be implemented after the parliamentary panel submits its final report -no deadline has been set.