From today no one is allowed to smoke in any public place including restaurants, pubs, hotels and even public parks. This malicious peace of legislation curtails individual freedom and opens innocent citizens to harassment by the police. If the criminal politicians really wanted to do public good they would have banned all tobacco products and I would have applauded it. But that would have meant foregoing enormous taxes raised on cigarettes and less money to loot. If I pay tax on a product it automatically means that the product is legal and that I have every right to use and enjoy without hindrance. Millions of people are employed in the tobacco industry, starting from farmers to workers in cigarette factories to dirt poor people engaged in rolling bidis for a few rupees per thousand. Banning tobacco would lose votes which is impossible. Even more dangerous than cigarettes are 'khaini', which is tobacco mixed with lime and kept inside the lower lip, and gutka which is chewing tobacco so addictive that I suspect that some cheap drug such as amphetamines are mixed in it. Khaini causes cancer of the lip and tongue and gutka cause a jump in blood pressure especially in middle aged men. These two products are used mainly by the poor who are least able to afford the serious consequences. Yet no restriction is being placed on these products proving that the Health Minister is just a shallow, petty man who has wasted public money for the four years in office. The law should be changed so that the tax payer can claim back all the salary and expenses paid to a minister who has been useless and a nuisance to public safety.