File photo of PM Narendra Modi (AFP Photo)
Referring to a BJP MP's controversial comment in support of tobacco, the Shiv Sena today took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying he had taken a broom to the roads but "who will clean the garbage spilling out of people's mouths?"
The Sena, not known for its political correctness, also mocked the MP, Dilip Gandhi, saying that he "deserves the Nobel Prize" for his remarks that there is no evidence in India that tobacco can cause cancer.
"For coming up with this surprising discovery that tobacco does not cancer, Dilip Gandhi does not need a doctor. He needs to be given a Nobel Prize. The MP has gone to the next level of discovery and has thereby stunned all those who oppose tobacco," the Sena said in an editorial in its mouthpiece 'Saamana'.
"Don't ask him when he made the discovery and what is the scientific explanation behind his findings. But this man has done immense service to the tobacco lobby by describing gutka in this way. Maybe that's why the Paan association has welcomed it."
The Sena said the tobacco industry may back Mr Gandhi's outrageous comments, but families of those who had suffered because of tobacco addiction would curse him.
"Out of 100 people admitted in Mumbai's Tata hospital, 60-65 suffer from cancer due to consuming tobacco. Doctors and health experts have time and again explained the harmful effects of tobacco. On one hand, PM Modi is talking against tobacco and on the other, his MP asks people to fearlessly consume tobacco," the Sena said.
Mr Gandhi, who is the head of a parliamentary panel examining rules on the sale of tobacco, has been widely criticized for saying that there is no Indian study linking tobacco with Cancer.
His remarks have given the Sena another chance to target the BJP. In recent months, the Sena's editorials have mostly been driven by criticism of its ally and PM Modi.