Health minister Ambumani Ramadoss' bizarre ways have hogged the limelight. His latest remark which he uttered in Patna on Friday too seems illogical. The minister wanted the husband to seek his wife's permission before lighting a cigarette at home

HAD THERE been a smokers’ lobby or a vote bank things would not have come to such a pass. To be hounded out of private and public buildings is one thing but to be barred from smoking in your own house is quite another. That is what the Union home minister intends to do.

Recently, Dr Ambumani Ramadoss had stated that a person can smoke at home (i.e., the only place in the world a person can call truly his own) only if his wife allows him to do so. Would the minister kindly enlighten us as to what would he expect us to do if the wife, rather than the husband, is the smoker (with the percentage of women smokers growing rapidly each year, especially in urban areas) or if both are?

The real question is not this but when exactly would Ramadoss stop his antics. His campaigns have gone from the logical to the illogical and irrational. In the long winding road to infamy the minister has been rebuked by no less than the Supreme Court (Venugopal episode. See articles ’Ambumani snubbed by Supreme Court’, ’Ramadoss: Time to go now’). The department he is in charge of is in tatters (see article: ’Nothing healthy about the health minister’) while the minister passes his time advising film stars and revels in the borrowed limelight. It would be much better for all concerned if Ramadoss gets his act together and puts his house in order first.