12 years ago, on 13 June 20017, WSN editor Jagmohan Singh wrote an open letter to Amritsar-based BJP leader Laxmi Kanta Chawla, who was then Health Minister, urging her to make Punjab tobacco smoke-free.  Since then in Punjab, the consumption of tobacco-related products has seen an exponential increase, though it is primarily the migrant population which abuses it. Still, Punjabis are willy-nilly taking to it.  While every Sikh and health organisation is talking about drug abuse, the proliferation of tobacco outlets is happening in front of our own eyes, at every street corner in villages, town and cities of Punjab. The present health minister can also take up the issue, will he?  Will Sikhs themselves do something or wait, till, like alcohol, the use of tobacco amongst Sikhs also becomes a concern?

DEAR Laxmi Kanta Chawla Ji, Namaste rudramanyavautota ishhave namah, Namaste astu dhanvane bahubhyamuta te namah. I could not greet you otherwise, because you are a self-proclaimed Punjabi-Sikh-baiter. You claim to have deep Indian roots, about which Punjabis are well aware for you were the only minister in the present Badal-BJP cabinet to take oath in the Sanskrit language.

I write to you to apprise you of interesting development to take place in neighbouring Chandigarh, which city has yet to become the sole capital of Punjab due to the acts of commission and omission of leaders like you who disassociated themselves from their mother tongue Punjabi in the sixties when Panjab was demarcated on linguistic lines.

I know about the magnitude of your abhorrence for Punjabis, but speaking for the Punjabis, may I say that the detestation is mutual. Neither did you budge an inch from your stand since the last four decades nor do have lovers of Punjabi lost any ground to you.

Coming to the point, if all goes all well and nobody puts a spanner in the works, Chandigarh is to become the first smoke-free city in the country.  Thanks to the work of activists of the Burning Brain Society of Chandigarh, no child, youth or adult of Chandigarh will have to bear the dangers of passive smoking.  Designated areas for smoking will be earmarked and there will be a heavy penalty imposed on people smoking in non-designated areas.

Ten years ago, when my friend and anthropologist, Fred Haering came from Alaska, he said, “you know Jagmohan, what I like most about Punjab is that is a smoke-free country.” I wish I could say that today. The Punjab of the nineties did not have a single roadside shop selling tobacco and tobacco-related products.  Today, all streets, main and bylanes, are literally littered with such shops selling death-causing substances to unsuspecting youth and children.  District headquarters are swarmed with such shops and outlets. There is no village which does not have more than one such outlet.

The state of Punjab has thrown out the provisions of the Anti-Tobacco act up in smoke.  No provision of the act has been implemented.  As the health minister of the state, I have not read about any step being taken by your government to implement the rules and regulations under the Cigarette and other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act. 2003.

Dr Deepinder Singh of Aas Kiran De-addiction Centre, Ludhiana has pointed out on this World No-Tobacco Day that according to a research done by them in association with Punjab Agricultural University, three years ago, as many as 66 per cent school going children were found to be consuming tobacco products like flavoured pan-masala. Tobacco abuse is on the rise in Punjab and the administration is not unaware.  According to PGI expert, Dr Neeraj, tobacco abuse was spreading amongst all sections of society, rich and poor, rural and urban.

I am sure that you are aware of the deaths caused by tobacco and tobacco-related products.  It has been conclusively held that Tobacco is the second major cause of death in the world. It is currently responsible for the death of one in ten adults worldwide (about 5 million deaths each year). If current smoking patterns continue, it will cause some 10 million deaths each year by 2020.

I pray that for a change you should take up the cause of health of Panjabis, even if you know that the Sikhs are going to benefit out of it.  On two early occasions, you have failed the people of Panjab.  A brave and straightforward woman leader like you forsook Punjabi for an alien language.  Instead of befriending the brave Sikh youth challenging the might of the Indian state and suffering torture and humiliation, you went ahead and tied Rakhi on the hands of KPS Gill.

Perhaps this is your chance to show that after all you still have a woman’s heart.  I am hoping against hope.  I urge you to undo your image.  The entire population of Punjab, which is fast turning non-Punjabi, will benefit if you emulate Chandigarh and declare Punjab also to be a smoke-free region.  Posterity will remember you for this and forget what you did earlier.

Namaste.

Jagmohan Singh