I don’t know whether it is appropriate to laugh, but sometimes looking at the way things are going behind the curtains of National Council and National Assembly really makes me feel like laughing at the top of my voice. I am sure many people out there feel the same. I mean sometimes, not always. This issue of smoking makes me smile and laugh.

At the same time they try to propose and lift ban on the smoking. When they made this law forbidding the sale of tobacco and its related products, many people, including us the students, thought it was for the good of everyone. But when the law interpreting body, the judiciary put people in the jails for the possession of illegal substances, the people who actually made the law, made a lot of noises themselves. “That’s not what we have meant,” they cried. “All we wanted was people to refrain from smoking and stop them from the bad habit. Ours was truly a good intention.”

So, when more and more people were caught and there were hues and cries from everywhere. That was when I thought MPs panicked. Some proposed changing the law before many people are made “criminals”. Then, the law came back as the hindrance. Any law that’s passed has to be tried at least for a year before the law making body can actually change it – “amend” is the word they use. So, they waited a year closing their eyes on what is happening in the tobacco world.

Then one year was counted without anyone’s notice. That’s when all people who are very good at making laws decided to “amend” the so-called urgent tobacco bill. That’s again when two bodies did not agree with so many things. I am told that because of so much difference in the opinions of the NA and NC, the Tobacco Control Act (TCA) would go unaltered.

There are different people. Some people smoke. Some people chew tobacco products. Some people sniff tobacco. There are many people who don’t smoke. There are many people who don’t find pleasure in chewing tobaccos and there are as many people who hate to sniff tobacco products.

From smuggling to black market, this thing called tobacco is so elusive in Bhutan. You are allowed to smoke but you can’t actually purchase them freely in the market. NC wanted to make the products legally available in the market. But who is going to sell the products, National Assembly maintain? Who is that lucky bastard who would be issued the license to sell the elusive items? I think the two houses together should run a shop or two and sell them legally. That’s the only option I see left.

But my little brain can only extend this much and do not know if I am politically correct to say this at all. This is where I excuse myself and go back to reading from my old tattered books. Life is so much better in my books. There is no question about that.

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