IMA wants action against Ramdev for objectionable statement

Again, the Hindutva protagonists are trying to dodge science for the sake of self-subservience and mislead people. The Union health ministry should take action against yoga guru Ramdev, a saffron-clad apologist of arch communal Hindutva, and owner of the multi-million rupees worth Patanjali brand, as he has misled people by making “untutored” statements against allopathy and defamed scientific medicine, the Indian Medical Association said on 22 May 2021.
Ramdev should be prosecuted under the Epidemic Diseases Act as “untutored” statements are “a threat to the literate society of the country as well as to the poor people falling prey to him”, the apex doctors’ body said in a statement.
Citing a video circulating on social media, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) said Ramdev is seen saying that “allopathy ek aisi stupid aur diwalilya science hai” (allopathy is such a stupid and bankrupt science)”. Referring to his words “lakhs of people have died after taking allopathic medicines”, the association said that Ramdev claimed Remdesivir, Faviflu, and all other drugs, which were approved by the Drugs Controller General of India, have failed in treatment of COVID-19 patients. He is doing this “so that he can sell his illegal and unapproved so-called medicines and make money at the cost of the public at large”, the association said.
“The Union health minister (Harsh Vardhan) who himself is a practicing modern medicine allopathic postgraduate and head of this (health) ministry should either accept the challenge and accusation of this gentleman and dissolve the modern medical facility or boldly face and prosecute the person for his words of arson on the sovereignty of the country and book him under the Epidemic Act to save millions of people from such unscientific utterances,” the IMA said.
Incidentally, the Union Health minister himself inaugurated launch of Coronil, the so called Ayurvedic drug from Ramdev’s Patanjali. An alleged piece of news that the World Health Organisation (WHO) has approved Patanjali’s Coronil as a treatment for coronavirus made headlines on 19 February. However, it was found that the Patanjali’s Coronil is neither Certified nor approved by WHO.
However, in view of the outrage and a legal notice from the Indian Medical Association (IMA), demanding a written apology for the statement that, it said, damaged the reputation of practitioners of allopathy and modern medicine when they are striving to save lives during the pandemic, and later being rebuked by the Health Minister for overdoing things, Ramdev on 23 May said he was “withdrawing” his remarks.
But when Indian Medical Association (IMA)-Uttarakhand has sent a strongly-worded letter to Ramdev saying if he doesn’t post a video on social media withdrawing his controversial remarks on allopathy medicines and tender a written apology within the next 15 days, he would be served a Rs 1,000 crore defamation notice, Ramdev has been heard saying “even their father can’t arrest Swami Ramdev)”.
(Hindustan Times 24-02-21, 26-05-21, The Wire 21-02-21 and Indian Express-22-05-21, NDTV 23-05-21, Times of India 27-05-21)