Chhattisgarh Minister Gives Smoking Tips to Tribals, Sparks Row

Raipur: Smoking can make breathing more exciting and enjoyable.

Unmindful of the health warning that smoking causes injury to health, Chhattisgarh industry minister Kawasi Lakhma, a tribal from Sukma district under Bastar in the state, feels ‘elated’ sharing the tips on his ‘newly developed breathing exercise’ with his fellow folks in his area, if a video showing his weird behaviour is an indication.

Mr Lakhma was on Saturday caught in a video ‘teaching’ a fellow tribal in his area on how to enjoy smoking through the ‘breathing exercise’, by inhaling through mouth and exhaling through nose.

He was seen in the video even sharing the tips on how to enjoy smoking with a fellow villager by puffing at a ‘bidi’ (tobacco wrapped in tendu leaf) and then releasing the smoke through his nose.

“Inhale through your mouth and exhale through your nose”, he was heard teaching the villager while walking in a narrow lane with his security guards accompanying him in the Naxal-infested Sukma.

In the video, a man not seen in the camera was seen asking another person, coming towards the minister, to move away so that the minister can be photographed smoothly.

In the video, he was seen stopping at a place and calling the tribal to come near him and giving himself a demo of smoking the ‘bidi’ by inhaling through his mouth and exhaling through his nose.

He was then seen in the video moving ahead with satisfaction when the villagers ‘mastered’ the art of smoking in the minister’s style.

The 30 second-video has gone viral triggering a political row here.

BJP spokesman Anurang Singhdeo slammed the minister for not only smoking in a public place but also promoting smoking by teaching another person how to smoke.

“It amounts to promoting smoking and drugs. It is highly objectionable for a minister to smoke in public”, he said.