THE FALL GUYS
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MEANINGS are given in BOLD and ITALIC
Is it fair to expect Madhuri Dixit, who has appeared in Maggi noodles advertisements, to pierce through the thicket (A thicket is a small group of trees or bushes which are growing closely together – घना जंगल) of claims and counter-claims on technical aspects of food chemistry when even the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, with an army of technicians and labs at its disposal, stumbles (If you stumble, you put your foot down awkwardly while you are walking or running and nearly fall over – भूल-चूक) on this issue? Well, that’s what a parliamentary panel on the Consumer Protection Bill, 2015, would expect her to do. It has recommended that “endorsers/ celebrities” be criminally penalised for “misleading” advertisements with a Rs 10 lakh fine and/ or imprisonment of up to two years for a first offence. If things go according to the panel’s plan, the scales would be unfairly and disproportionately loaded against endorsers and the onus shifted for ascertaining product safety away from regulators.
In China, attempts to prosecute Jackie Chan for his endorsement of a “chemical-free” shampoo with allegedly cancer-causing ingredients have failed. Internationally, in the US, for example, celebrity endorsers are subject to civil liability for making false claims. But, one, such liability is typically indemnified To indemnify (To indemnify someone against something bad happening means to promise to protect them, especially financially, if it happens – क्षतिपूर्ति) someone against something bad happening means to promise to protect them, especially financially, if it happens by the brand owner and, two, a test of “reasonable contemplation” by the endorser — for instance, has the product been signed off on by the safety regulator? — is applicable. In the case of criminal liability, however, these two alleviating conditions will likely not hold. In India, where the IPC already criminalises attempts to intentionally sell “noxious” (If you refer to someone or something as noxious, you mean that they are extremely unpleasant – हानिकारक) food, and the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, has provisions for fines for false advertising, additional criminal penalties are overzealous and unnecessary.
The parliamentary panel’s recommendation is troubling, especially when applied to the realm of food safety and consumer products, where the shifting sands of science frequently throw up new heroes and villains. So is it kosher to say that eggs and butter make for a healthy breakfast? Or that Marmite is good for you thanks to its vitamin load? The UK says it is, although Denmark had banned it. You better be sure before you ad lib (If you ad-lib something in a play or a speech, you say something which has not been planned or written beforehand – इच्छानुसार).
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