Bengal Marxist Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee is now the new target for the Union Health Minister Ambumani Ramadoss. After King Khan Ramadoss has trained his gun on Buddhadeb against his smoke puffs.

Buddhadeb being a leader should be an example for others. His behaviour should be ideal and should be worthy to be followed by others. Ramadoss said that he is a senior person and doesn’t need his advice.

Bhattacharjee is known to smoke in privacy of his chamber in spite of a ban in the Writer’s Building. As the chief minister was the prime offender there is no strictness on the rule. Though smoke detectors worth lakhs of rupees have been installed in all the chambers of ministers and bureaucrats but perhaps they are not working or not been activated. There seems no law for the ministers. Ironically, the chief minister has company in the Health minister Dr. Suryakanto Mishra and a number of others Left Front ministers who are also finding it difficult to kick the habit.

A nationwide survey on tobacco consumption reveals almost three-fourths of all Bengalis are hooked to the cancer stick. On this Ramadoss had to say, “Seventy per cent of men in West Bengal people take to tobacco, including the chief minister.” He also pointed out the northeastern states have the highest number of smokers in the country.

Bhattacharjee lighting up at the drop of a hat has been in the news for a long time. It surfaced in the nineties when a nettled West Bengal Finance minister Dr Asim Dasgupta upped and slapped a constable on duty on the Writers Building corridor for smoking. He proposed an enactment of a ban on smoking the corridors of the secretariat and public places. Bhattacharjee, then Home minister, and a batch mate of the finance minister told his cabinet colleague to turn a blind eye to his chamber.

Now the PWD Minister Kshiti Goswami has upped the ante and put up notices on the corridors of Writers’ Building, which reads, “Smoking and spitting on the corridors are strictly prohibited.”