NEW DELHI, Apr 2 (NDTV) : There is no Indian evidence to link cancer to cigarettes, said the chief of a parliamentary committee earlier this week, commissioning a national controversy. Now, another member of the same panel has backed that opinion, asking, "Why can't doctors explain why chain smokers don't get cancer?"

Shyam Charan Gupta of BJP made a series of indignant pronouncements to NDTV today to argue against strict rules proposed by the government to curb smoking. "Sugar is also harmful and causes diabetes - no one can stop that," he said to bolster his argument that the tobacco industry is being unfairly targeted. Mr Gupta is the owner of a beedi-making business that is worth hundreds of crores, but denied a conflict of interest in serving on a committee that has just given the tobacco industry a major breather.

The committee, chaired by Dilip Gandhi of the BJP, has delayed the government's plans to enforce bigger health warnings on cigarette packets by saying it wants time to study the issue. Mr Gandhi told NDTV earlier this week, "There is no Indian survey report to prove that tobacco consumption leads to cancer. All the studies are done abroad."

Mr Gupta joined forces with him in citing that there is no local evidence of extensive damage done by tobacco. He also said beedis or hand-rolled cigarettes are less harmful than cigarettes. "Why are we working under WHO (World Health Organization) pressure?" he challenged. He then invoked the PM's pet Make-in -India campaign which focuses on promoting manufacturing. "We have a "Make in India" slogan... one crore people are involved in the manufacture, transport and sale of beedis... we can't affect them," he said.

Up to 900,000 Indians die every year from causes related to tobacco use, the government has said. India will record 1.5 million tobacco-related deaths annually by 2020, according to some estimates by the International Tobacco Control Project.