Will Pan-Tobacco Sellers Now Handle National Security? Kang’s Sharp Jibe at BJP

New Delhi/Chandigarh(The Uttam Hindu): Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) senior leader and Member of Parliament from Sri Anandpur Sahib, Malvinder Singh Kang, launched a sharp attack on the BJP-led central government during the discussion on the Health Security and National Security Cess Bill 2025 in Parliament.

Questioning the rationale of the Bill, Kang said that the government is making a crude joke with the country by linking harmful products like pan masala and tobacco with “national security.” He quipped that until now, we believed that our brave soldiers safeguard the nation, but after this bill, pan–tobacco sellers will claim that they are the ones protecting India.

MP Kang said that the subject itself is extremely absurd and full of contradictions. He said that India’s borders are protected by our great Indian Army, but the government, by bringing such a bill, is sending out a message that someone paying tax on pan-masala is “securing the nation.” Tomorrow, he said, a pan shop owner might say that because he pays tax, the border is protected.

Kang said health security is achieved through good sports infrastructure and good diet, not tobacco, something universally declared dangerous for health everywhere. Citing Sikh history, he said that even the horse of Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji stopped upon seeing a tobacco field; that is how severely tobacco is condemned in Sikhism. But the government is glorifying it.

Malvinder Singh Kang also took a dig at the BJP’s so-called Gujarat Model. He said that drugs worth thousands of crores are seized from Gujarat’s Mundra Port and then spread across the country; what action is the government taking against those big sharks? Raising the issue of Punjab, he said that the state shares a 750-kilometre border with Pakistan. Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann repeatedly demands its modernisation. Kang asked whether the revenue collected from this cess will be used to secure Punjab’s border.

He also objected to the clause in the Bill which claims that prices will not be significantly affected. Kang said that this implies the government wants people to consume cheap intoxicants and wants the pan–tobacco business to grow further.

Kang concluded by saying that the government is centralising taxes through GST and other mechanisms. He demanded that the Centre clearly define the share of states in the revenue collected through this cess. Advising the government, he said that if it truly wants health and national security, it should focus on strengthening sports infrastructure and improving people’s diets, not glorifying products like tobacco and pan masala and pretending that they safeguard the nation. The government needs to reconsider this bill.