Don’t push the FIZZ away :

As politicians go gaga over the cola issue, I have some strong thoughts on them. FYI, COLAS here include all soft drinks.

a) If colas can cause cancer and other diseases, lets have them labelled, COLA DRINKING IS INJURIOUS TO HEALTH. Just like how cigarettes are sold. If Cola needs to be banned, let cigarettes precede them.

b) As the elections near, our indian poiticians are in need of a hot issue. Heck they got a cold cola issue and they are trying dramatically to turn it into a hot one. Pray they can’t.

c) Banning colas will only make the direct foreign investers hesitate to invest in India. Such a fast growing economy like India cannot afford to push aside the direct investment money.

d) If there are pesticides in the water, it is the water that needs to be treated and not the colas. There can be regulatory acts to stop the production of colas for sometime until they start producing pure colas.

e) Finally, we are all image overloaded by the media, taken over the by dramas of politicians. Saw on Sun TV the other day, a petty shop owner in Chennai, trying to wash his footwear with a Coke and express his anger on the cola. Dull-headed. Can’t think that he had his morning idlis with the money earned by selling colas.

Why jump into the BAN wagon. Some statistics on the cola GULP :

By March 2001, government estimates that 6540 million cold drink bottles were sold annually in the country. In other words, with over a billion Indians, each Indian would be drinking roughly 6 bottles of soft drinks each year (compare: Pakistan, 17 bottles per capita per year; Sri Lanka, 21 bottles; China, 21). In Delhi, the consumption is a whopping 50 bottles per person per year. And now you know why they banned colas in parliament.

The consumer in the free world, they say, is king. So let the king pass judgement, after thinking. Think.