Note: A version of this blog was posted on my Tumblr page.
Recently, there has been a fresh controversy brewing in India regarding the size of pictorial warnings on cigarette packets. The mainstream Indian media outlets, going by their default nature, wouldn’t have bothered to inform their readers/viewers about the issue since it is not as important as some kid hitting a cricket ball towards a church. But this time, they were stirred to action since the parliamentary committee which recommended that the current size of the pictorial warnings on the cigarette (and other tobacco products’) packing need not be increased, happened to have an MP who is also a tobacco businessman. Of course, this gross conflict of interest would have gone over the heads of our media had the MP not been from the ruling party of India which the media honchos love to hate. That the said parliamentary committee gave absence of Indian research linking tobacco use to cancer as the excuse for its recommendation should have been reason enough to arouse media interest but that is not as attractive as something that would further the propaganda war against the current ruling dispensation.
The issue I want to talk about is not the media or the uneducated recommendation of the committee or the conflict of interest of an MP. I want to talk about our hypocrisy in this entire ‘pictorial warnings on the cigarette packs’ issue. To start off, let me clarify that I do not intend to question the scientific fact that cigarette smoking or tobacco use is injurious to health, including causing cancer. I also agree that people need to be informed and warned of this. But whose responsibility is it to do this? I want to ask if it is ethical to force the cigarette manufacturers to put up advertisements that would negatively effect their business. That too with their money and on the face of the product that they are trying to sell. Is it ethical for the government and the society in general to pick on just one kind of product? What about fast food business whose products have been shown to cause obesity which is now reaching epidemic proportions in various parts of the world? What about sugary drinks? Alcohol? Most universities in India are substandard. Shouldn’t they warn their gullible students that all they will end up getting for their time and money is a piece of paper called degree and not quality education? Our judiciary’s main quality is to deliver delayed justice. Shouldn’t they warn all the litigants that they will have to wait forever to know what happened to their case? News outlets’ main job is to inform the public. But in India today, all that the media does is propaganda peddling, disrupting communal harmony, spin lies, twist facts, edit truths and foster outrage. Shouldn’t the viewers of every news channel and readers of ever news paper be informed that whatever they see, hear or read should be taken with a truckload of salt and masala? Going to our government hospitals means getting many more diseases than what you already have. Shouldn’t those getting admitted they be warned of their awaited fate? These are just some instances where the government does not force warnings in the consumers’ interest. So, why only tobacco industry? May be because it is a fashionable thing to do in the west. May be because it is an easy target. I don’t know. What I do know is that these kind of warning should be mandatory everywhere to protect the consumer and not just where it is convenient for the government to force without facing a backlash. Also I do not think it is ethical of the government to force someone trying to sell something to warn against buying it. It is however government’s duty to warn people of the dangers. So why doesn’t the government use the tax money it collects from the sale of tobacco products to buy advertising space to issue these warning, including on the face of cigarette packs and in movie theatres?
What do you think? Do you agree with me? If you disagree I would like to know why.
