"We never thought about that".
I was reading the Deccan Chronicle and the City section greeted me with this really amusing piece of news "Smoking ban raises gutkha sales". Its like trying to save the drowning man by pushing his head down (if the analogy does not amuse you, the comments section is always open).
Decisions like these were the reason behind an earlier post where I had questioned the umpteen number of government decisions which either were not thought through fully or lacked rationale.
Even this decision of banning smoking in public places comes with its share of idiosyncracies, not to mention the yet-to-be-seen enthusiasm behind implementing it. In my opinion the taxes on all tobacco products should be prohibitively high and there should be strict curbs on their points of sale. I am sure the idea behind this ban is not just to save the non-smokers from passive smoking but also to deter the smokers from doing so.
I agree with you on tobacco prices. They should be made prohibitively high. That would serve as a very good deterrent.
ReplyDeleteAnd I feel banning it altogether is taking it a bit too far. We are a democracy, if every minister wants to impose his whims & fancies on us, I dunno where we'll end up .
Appreciate your support Ranjit.
ReplyDeleteMy personal feeling when it comes to smoking is, "To each his/her own" - of course as long as it does not interfere with others freedom.
Also, a law is only as good as its implementors and its followers. If the laws are not enforced strictly they will just add to our constitution's weight - which is already unwieldy. On the same note, if the citizens do not have "respect" (or "fear" - it depends) then the whole point is lost. Then I will smoke on someone's face in a private party and say it is not a public place. This was one of the issues we had planned to target as part of Targeting The Roots (http://targetingtheroots.blogspot.com). To be sure, the mission is still on, though the group as such may have got silent.
The point, if can guess it right, was to ensure that one does not kill others due to one's smoking habits.