Dear readers,
It was a floor test of a different kind in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly last week.
On March 5, the Assembly formally imposed a ban on chewing gutkha inside its premises. The immediate provocation was the uproar over an MLA spitting paan masala on the carpet of the Assembly Hall.
Videos went viral of the Assembly Speaker Satish Mahana personally overseeing the cleaning and reprimanding the legislator for the act. Mahana stated that he knew who was responsible, as video cameras installed on the premises had recorded the incident, but would not name the legislator. Initially, he also threatened to recover the cost of cleaning the spit-stained carpet from the culprit.
The ban, which includes a fine for violators, was implemented after considerable debate and after the Speaker addressed the issue in the Budget session.
Mahana said he did not name the MLA because he did not want to humiliate anyone publicly, but he suggested that the MLA approach him and accept responsibility; otherwise, Mahana said he would summon him. According to all indications, the MLA did wisely resolve the matter privately with the Speaker.
Mahana asked legislators to “keep a check on each other” to prevent such incidents. His stance echoed that of Singapore’s founding father, Lee Kuan Yew, who once remarked that the difficult part of governance was getting people to change their habits and behave like first-world citizens rather than those who spit and litter indiscriminately.
This is not the first time a spit row has tainted the Uttar Pradesh Assembly. In 2022, Opposition leader Akhilesh Yadav tweeted a video of a BJP MLA chewing tobacco. Ironically, the video was shot and circulated by a BJP MLA himself. Yadav took potshots, suggesting that the BJP legislator was highlighting the health hazards of gutkha consumption.
In February this year, the West Bengal Assembly proposed a Bill imposing heavy fines for spitting tobacco, chewed paan, and paan masala in public places. The State government said that such stains on newly painted walls and pavements undermined beautification efforts. West Bengal already has a law in place—the West Bengal Prevention of Spitting in Public Places Act, 2003—to curb such practices. Clearly, to little effect.
In April 2020, the Biju Janata Dal government in Odisha banned chewing paan and gutkha in public spaces. The then Assembly Speaker Surjya Narayan Patro made it a punishable offence with fines of up to Rs.500.
In 2017, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath issued an order banning paan and tobacco products in schools, colleges, hospitals, and government buildings. This came after his visit to Lal Bahadur Shastri Bhawan in Lucknow, where he found the walls stained with betel juice. He urged bureaucrats to refrain from eating paan and paan masala during duty hours.
In 2017, the government of neighbouring Uttarakhand issued a stern warning against spitting and littering on Assembly and Secretariat premises. Special teams were deployed to monitor offenders with CCTV cameras, and a step-by-step punishment system was introduced.
Indian politicians have a well-documented penchant for gutkha, paan, and paan masala. One vividly recalls the maverick Lalu Prasad’s speeches and interviews, where he spoke through a betel-laden mouth, or Governor Arif Mohammad Khan’s fondness for paan. In 2022, Students’ Federation of India national president V.P. Sanu mocked Khan, the then Governor of Kerala, saying: “The Governor has become the ambassador of paan masala. The Excise Department should conduct an investigation at Raj Bhavan.” But now, Khan will be happy. As Governor of Bihar, he is in a State where paan-chewing politicians are a common sight.
In 2015, when the then Janata Dal (United) [JD(U)] president Sharad Yadav was caught on camera chewing tobacco at a political meeting in Bihar—despite a ban on tobacco sales and consumption in the State—television channels asked how laws could be enforced when lawmakers themselves flouted them. Some Bihar Ministers were also spotted chewing tobacco on stage at the same JD(U) meeting, which was attended by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. The incident occurred soon after Bihar implemented a tobacco ban on World Cancer Day.
When Maharashtra’s Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar had to undergo dental surgery in 2002 due to the effects of chewing gutkha, the Vilasrao Deshmukh-led government announced a gutkha ban shortly after. However, the bans are often ineffective. In Tamil Nadu, for instance, gutkha was banned in 2013, yet sales continued for years, allegedly with political and police involvement.
A media report based on RTI disclosures revealed that India’s leading cigarette manufacturer, ITC Ltd, made donations to multiple political parties, including the BJP and the Congress, in 2009-10. In 2015, the BJP MP Dilip Gandhi dismissed calls for larger pictorial warnings on tobacco products, arguing that there were no India-specific studies linking tobacco to cancer.
If politics in India is full of spice, then paan masala adds to its pungency. But beyond politics, paan is very much a part of pop culture as well.
Bollywood songs like “Paan Khaye Saiyan Hamar” (filmed on Waheeda Rehman in Teesri Kasam), “Khaike Paan Banaras Wala” (Amitabh Bachchan in Don), and “Paan Ka Ek Beeda” (Govinda in Banarasi Babu) are all about betel chewing. Of course, none of them show where and how to spit responsibly. Prominent Bollywood stars have often faced flak for endorsing paan masala and gutkha brands, directly or through surrogate ads, and the list includes Shah Rukh Khan, Ajay Devgn, Akshay Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan, Ranveer Singh, Hrithik Roshan, and Tiger Shroff.
What do you think about the spitting controversy? Should politicians speak more and spit less? Write in and tell us.
Until next Friday, wishing you all a great Holi.
Anand Mishra | Political Editor, Frontline
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