Indian Ignorance
Dr Harjinder Kaur Talwar reposts an error-strewn article to argue that India not only needs to maintain its failing ban, it needs to carry out a mass disinformation campaign
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by Dave Cross
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India is home to 253 million tobacco users, of which 80.5 million are cigarette smokers. One million Indians die every year from tobacco related diseases. Despite these awful statistics, the country decided to ban the sale of vape products while maintaining the sale of tobacco products, not least because the government owns a large share of ITC Limited (formerly the India Tobacco Company Limited). Against this backdrop, Dr Harjinder Kaur Talwar proposes a campaign of lying about vaping.
Dr Harjinder Kaur Talwar reposted an article from Live Mint titled “India Reports 350 Vape Violations”. The article is basically the government ministry in charge of tobacco, The Union Health and Family Ministry's (MoHFW) tobacco cell, reporting how its ban on tobacco harm reduction is completely failing – although it wouldn’t view it that way.
It has reported “350 vape-related violations since 2022”, no doubt the tip of an iceberg in black market activity as consumers seek to use nicotine in a safer way than smoking tobacco.
With 44 violations of the Prohibition of Electronic Cigarettes (Production, Manufacture, Import, Export, Transport, Sale, Distribution, Storage, and Advertisement) Act in half a year – the number is as good as zero for a country the size of India.
The article reiterates an anti-vape lie: “In 2019, a white paper published by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) had said that e-cigarettes are specifically targeted at young children, adversely affecting their cardiovascular system; impairing respiratory, immune cell function and airways in a way similar to cigarette smoking.”
It goes on to quote Bloomberg-funded Mothers Against Vaping saying: “Ban on vapes is the right strategy for India. The ban should be implemented strictly, and any lobbying for its dilution should be scuttled. We need kids to enter sports and make India proud rather than succumb to new addictions and lose their future.”
A Dr Raj Kumar claims that vaping is “an epidemic” in the West, a complete lie.
“Claims that e-cigarettes aid cessation is a big lie,” he lied, and demanded even tougher action. Raj didn’t explain what is a tougher measure than completely banning the import, sale, and manufacture of vapes…but we are sure he has a good idea.
In posting the article, Dr Harjinder Kaur Talwar stated: “We need another campaign to explain that vaping is equally dangerous as smoking, if not more.”
As dangerous as smoking, if not more?
Dr Talwar is not a stupid woman, she is the Managing Director & CEO of Comvision India – a large tech company teaching IT skills. Well, apart from the fact that it has an out of date security certificate resulting in stalled access to its website
“She holds the unique distinction of being the only women founder of an intelligent transport business (e-toll/FASTag). Her company Comvision has developed several transport & traffic management integrated systems viz-a-viz e-toll, e-parking and e-governance, RFID based permit e-port systems, ANPR based hi-speed tolling, fastag issuance & acquiring, fintech solutions.”
And yet here she is advocating for lies to perpetuate smoking in a country where far too many lives are already being lost.
What is India’s problem with the truth?
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
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