The Brave Pedestrian

This is the text of the impleadment application of Activist Ravi Krishna Reddy as an opposing Respondent in the matter referred to in my recent post titled  What makes Karnataka High Court the Darling of Tobacco Lobby? The below impleadment application was recently heard in open court . The application describes how the tobacco lobby, led by ITC Limited, is abusing the judicial process. ---------------------------------------------------- "The case above is part of a batch of cases. This batch is currently being heard by a Bench of this Hon’ble Court. Tobacco companies and tobacco trade groups have questioned the legality and constitutionality of the 85% pictorial warning on tobacco packs – the Cigarettes And Other Tobacco Products (Packaging and Labelling Amendment) Rules, 2014. The case above was filed in the Karnataka High Court itself. The 85% pictorial warning on tobacco packs alerts about the inherently dangerous, harmful and toxic nature of tobacco to the uns...

Mumbai, 16 th February, 2017: It's a proven fact that millions of innocent young lives are saved by a law named COTPA, requiring tobacco brands to display graphic warnings on 85% of their packaging surface. Naturally, India's tobacco barons – mercenary drug lords whose business consists of spreading tobacco-addition among youths -- are lobbying for dilution of this law and hunting for reliefs from court. But why are all the tobacco barons filing petitions in Karnataka High Court in particular, instead of their own states? Of all the high courts that are available to them, why Karnataka? Why is Karnataka High Court entertaining them and giving them red-carpet treatment despite lack of jurisdiction? And why is Supreme Court – the Indian citizen's last hope -- looking the other way and allowing trhis forum-hunting? These are uncomfortable questions, bordering on criminal contempt. But, with millions of lives at stake, one is compelled by conscience to raise such q...

Ever wondered how cigarette and bidi adverts would look if genuine users endorsed them? Well here are some specimens. These are adverts made with real people -- real tobacco users who were, not surprisingly, patients at Tata Memorial Hospital back in 2012. Some of these people are alive, while others have passed on. Image: http://tinyurl.com/Malegaon-ka-superrman In October 2012, I interviewed almost all of the people in these ads -- with the sole exception of "Malegaon Ka Superrman" lead actor Shafique Shaikh (who had already died). And these guys told me, up close and personal, how much they had enjoyed chewing and smoking tobacco -- up until the point that it ravaged their bodies. Image: http://tinyurl.com/Gutka-barons Some of these people are still alive, but their bodies have been ravaged by radiation-therapy, surgery and chemotherapy. Some who were diagnosed with oral cancer have had half their lower or upper jaw removed, along wit...