File photo of Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar.
NCP chief Sharad Pawar, a cancer survivor, today ridiculed Dilip Gandhi a, BJP MP from Ahmednagar, over his comment on link between tobacco and cancer, saying "some public representatives who are medical experts, have said tobacco doesn't have any adverse effects."
"I am not an expert in medical field. I used to consume gutka (flavoured tobacco mix) so I suffered this (oral cancer). I had to undergo operation. My lower and upper teeth had to be removed," Mr Pawar told reporters at Ahmednagar.
"I did that (underwent treatment) in time and that is why I came out of this. But in Ahmednagar, some 'knowledgeable' public representatives say this (tobacco) doesn't have any effect. "It seems these people have a deep knowledge of medical science," Mr Pawar said.
After he created a controversy with the statement that there is no Indian study linking tobacco with cancer, Mr Gandhi recently also said that tobacco actually improves digestion.
Speaking at Adhal village in Srigonda tehsil of Ahmednagar district on Friday, Mr Gandhi said, "There is no study which shows that tobacco causes cancer...there are people who have chewed tobacco but survived for 100 years."
What makes Mr Gandhi's view significant is the fact that he heads the parliamentary panel on subordinate legislation examining the provisions of Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act.
He also said "we have to study the Indian context, as four crore people in states like Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh are dependent on bidi (leaf-rolled cigarette) making".