Ayurveda

‘The Liver Doc’ Abby Philips Moves High Court To Get X Account Restored

Meanwhile, another ayurveda firm has sent a legal notice to the hepatologist, demanding an apology and Rs 1 crore in damages.

New Delhi: Hepatologist Dr Cyraic Abby Philips has moved the Karnataka high court against X (formerly Twitter) and Himalaya Wellness Corporation for the restoration of his popular account @theliverdr or ‘The Liver Doc’.

He confirmed to The Wire that a petition had been filed, without going into any further details. According to LiveLaw, the petition was filed on Friday and is likely to be mentioned before a single-judge bench of Justice S.G. Pandit on Monday for an early hearing.

X withheld his account in India on September 28 after a Bengaluru civil court passed an ex-parte, interim injunction order against him in a case filed by Himalaya, which had claimed the doctor made defamatory statements against company products like Liv-52.

Before his X account was suspended, Philips countered practices in alternate medicine systems like Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy that he said caused liver damage in patients.

Talking to The Wire at that time, Philips said that since it was an ex-parte injunction, he did not get the chance to make his defence, adding that his posts were evidence-based and were available for public review.

Philips has garnered a lot of support from doctors, patients and many others on social media after his account was suspended. The Alliance of Doctors for Ethical Healthcare (ADEH), a pan-India network of doctors, issued a press statement on October 3 in support. It was the first organisation of doctors to do so.

“We believe that this doctor, among others, have been rendering yeoman service to the people of India by identifying non-scientific methodologies of the purported cures; and exposing harmful effects of some of them,” they wrote.

The ADEH also added, “The doctor was not served any legal notice and to suspend his account in such an arbitrary fashion is unusual. We are puzzled as to what constitutes urgency in this case, for the court to take such a step.”

Himalaya had alleged that Philips had been “posting derogatory statements against the products of the company due to which it has lost substantial business”. It had also accused Philips of working at the behest of companies like Cipla and Alchem – an allegation that Philips said was preposterous.

“Rather it’s me who finds the order defamatory. Himalaya has alleged I was writing Twitter posts [debunking myths of certain ayurveda products] on behalf of certain companies and to promote their products…But Himalaya failed to give any evidence to prove this claim,” he had said.

The defamation suit filed by Himalaya has sought Rs 10 crore (Rs 1.2 million) in damages from him.

Another company, another notice

In another incident, a Chennai-based ayurveda firm Kesari Kuteeram Private Limited, has sent a legal notice to him. Philips posted about the death of a pregnant woman after she consumed the company’s herbal product Madhiphala Rasayanam because of “severe herbal liver injury”. His lab would review and analyse the product, he said.

It is to be noted that Philips did not accuse the company’s product of causing the death, only that he was asked to analyse and review its composition.

Photo: Screengrab via X

Kesari Kuteeram said in the notice that his conclusion was based on ‘hearsay’, ‘wholly incorrect’ and ‘defamatory’ against the company. It also said the ‘goodwill of the client’ has been ‘degraded’. It also accused Philips of having a bias against the ‘herbal healthcare system’ in general.

The notice demanded he delete his tweet, issue an apology, and pay Rs 1 crore in damages. Philips said he stood by this post and that he would respond to the notice from the company appropriately. He has received such notices from several other Ayurvedic companies in the past and has been responding to them.

The company on its website says the drug is safe for use during the first trimester of pregnancy. However, no data is available in the public domain to attest to this claim or evidence from any clinical trial to arrive at this conclusion.

Photo: Screengrab

The Wire has written an email to Kesari Kuteeram. Its response will be added if and when it is received.

Ayurvedic companies have also complained against Philips to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). In one instance, the complaint came after he explained the harmful effects of the reckless use of Giloy to a YouTube channel.

Also Read: As COVID Surged, India Had a Silent Outbreak of Giloy-Induced Liver Injury

The PMO forwarded the complaint to the National Medical Commission (NMC) with which doctors are registered. The NMC, in turn, sent the complaint to Kerala State Medical Council. The Kerala Council found that Philips’s statements were evidence-backed and did not find merit in complaint against him.

Philips had also written to the PMO warning against the reckless promotion of giloy and cited several studies in the context. His letter received no response.

Ayurveda Practitioners Aren’t Entitled to Payment on Par With Allopathy Doctors: SC

Saying that the apex court does not mean to compare the two systems, it said that allopathy doctors perform trauma and emergency care, in addition to surgeries and thus their work was not equal to indigenous medicine practitioners.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has said that doctors of indigenous medicine cannot be entitled to pay equal to allopathy doctors as the latter carry out emergency duty and trauma care which the former cannot.

LiveLaw has reported that on Wednesday, April 27, a bench of Justice V. Ramasubramanian and Justice Pankaj Mithal set aside a Gujarat high court order that had it that practitioners with a Bachelor of Ayurved in Medicine and Surgery degree are to be treated the same as doctors with MBBS degrees. The high court had also held that the former would be entitled to the benefits of the recommendation of the Tikku Pay Commission.

The Supreme Court said that it is not possible for Ayurved doctors to assist surgeons performing complicated surgeries, while MBBS doctors can do this, in addition to essential trauma and emergency services.

The court said it does not mean to compare the two systems.

“We shall not be understood to mean as though one system of medicine is superior to the other. It is not our mandate nor within our competence to assess the relative merits of these two systems of medical sciences,” the bench said.

Saying that the bench has “no doubt that every alternative system of medicine may have its pride of place in history,” the bench noted that indigenous medicine practitioners do not need to perform surgeries, and nor are they needed in post-mortem or autopsy functions. The bench also said that MBBS doctors in general hospitals attend to hundreds of patients.

Why Amendments to India’s Biodiversity Act Need a Public Debate

The law does warrant a review, but the changes proposed cannot focus only on selectively realising India’s international commitments or responding to concerns of industry.

Twenty years after India enacted the Biological Diversity (BD) Act, 2002 the law is back on the drawing board. A Bill to amend the Act was tabled in the Lok Sabha by the Union environment minister on December 16, 2021. Since its inception, the law has framed the interactions between the environment regulators, government-appointed expert committees and accessors/users of biological resources and related people’s knowledge. Yet the people themselves, the real biodiversity-keepers on the ground, have been largely absent from the debate.

India’s biodiversity law does warrant a review, but the changes proposed by the present amendments cannot only focus on selectively realising India’s international commitments or responding to concerns of industry. For positive change, the amendment exercise would need to address the most fundamental challenges in implementation at the local level, that of maintaining the fine balance between bio trade on the one hand, and sustainable use and bio sovereignty on the other. This will require equal focus on both conservation and communities.

Government’s persuasion to amend the law

The present set of amendments emerges mainly from the demands of the medicine, seed and other bio-based industries. The statement of objects and reasons in the Bill foregrounds this as a justification to “simplify, streamline and reduce compliance burden” of the existing law. With the changes, the government is setting itself up to bring in more ‘foreign investments’ including research, patents and commercial utilisation in the business of biodiversity.

Implementation challenges of the law have surfaced in the last decade, as diverse interpretations from different stakeholders emerged, several of which have also been subject to litigation in domestic courts. The proposed changes attempt to reconcile some important court decisions that have acknowledged the powers of State Biodiversity Boards (SBBs) under the BD Act to regulate access by Indian industry. Both SBBs and commercial users of wild and cultivated biological resources want this clarified before they enter into access agreements setting up the terms and conditions of use and benefit-sharing.

In the early phase, India’s biodiversity rules and regulations issued under the BD Act were critiqued for their over-emphasis on regulating access, rather than proactively enforcing measures to conserve biodiversity, support people’s knowledge and realise sustainable use. This preoccupation with access is reflected even in the present amendments. It is, therefore, no surprise that the proposed amendments predominantly deal with the access process and procedures. The proposed Bill introduces a definition of ‘access’ even though the parent international treaty – Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), on which the domestic law is based – has not been able to arrive at a universally acceptable definition.

The Bill also introduces exemptions from adherence to procedures for access and benefit-sharing (ABS). If the amendments go through, registered AYUSH practitioners who have been practising indigenous systems of medicine will be exempt from any legal ABS obligations. This is a win for the AYUSH Ministry and more so for the companies that market ISM products.

Ministry of AYUSH, Ayurveda, Unani, homeopathy, allopathy, traditional medicine, scientific method, alternative medicine, guru shishya parampara, Charaka Samhita, jagatguru complex, biomedicine, MBBS degree, Government Ayurveda Medical College, Medical Council Act 1956, Indian Medicine Central Council Act 1970, Wuhan coronavirus, 2019 novel coronavirus, COVID-19,

Photo: Katherine Hanlon/Unsplash

Prior informed consent and the Nagoya Protocol

The CBD’s 2010 Nagoya Protocol – the international regime on ABS – lays down that access to biological resources should be reciprocated with the sharing of benefits that accrue from such access, which could range from monetary benefits such as upfront payments to non-monetary benefits such as joint ownership of relevant IPR or social recognition. However, the Protocol mandates that access cannot be without obtaining “prior informed consent” (PIC) or approval and involvement of indigenous and local communities, who are the custodians of genetic resources and related traditional knowledge.

India became a party to this Protocol in 2014. To give effect to the Protocol, the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) had also notified ABS Regulations in 2014, which were legally challenged by the bioindustry. While the proposed Bill to amend the BD Act recognises that benefit-sharing needs to be ensured through India’s domestic law, it is focused on facilitating access and accomplishing the bureaucratic procedure for the same. The processes for PIC and the involvement of people are yet to be guaranteed. The Bill allows SBBs to represent local biodiversity management committees (BMCs) and social development funds can be set up if ownership or benefit claimers cannot be identified.

India may manage to increase its ABS agreements, but this ought not to be through lowering the standards of democratic decision making. The BD Act continues to rely on local ‘consultations’ (rather than PIC) to decide on access and determine benefit-sharing, indicating that the proposed amendments reflect a selective assimilation of the international regime on ABS. The amendment process is an important opportunity to fully reconcile domestic law with the progressive provisions of the Nagoya Protocol.

Also Read: Proposed Amendment to Biodiversity Act Is a Trojan Horse for Businesses, Centre

Democratising biodiversity conservation

It is clear that the proposed amendments are not driven by a popular mandate. But what is the general public saying? From the outset, the BD Act has been perceived by both governments and the general public as a techno-legal framework. The expertocracy around the legislation should not alienate people. More efforts have to be made to open space for biodiversity governance beyond the legal, scientific, corporate sector and administrative experts. A law that has bearing on our everyday consumer choices, determines how our living environment is governed and how decisions around food, farming and medical care are shaped, has to make space for popular deliberation and engagement. Neither the environment ministry nor the NBA can sans all the people achieve conservation objectives.

The present amendments not just reinforce the executive’s obsession with regulating access but miss the opportunity to recognise that biodiversity conservation merits a democratic conscience. Illegal access to biological resources, i.e. biopiracy cannot be curtailed through closed-door meetings and tools of surveillance. Moreover, it is time that we make explicit the links between the BD Act and real people. Such as supporting the rights of farmers to conserve seeds and agrobiodiversity on their farmlands; or encouraging city dwellers to protect trees and wetlands; and demanding a reversal of the air pollution crisis through urban biodiversity.

JPC can expand the debate

The Biodiversity Amendment Bill, 2021 was referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on December 20, 2021, which will examine its contents and give its recommendations in the 2022 budget session of parliament. The JPC has before it the environment ministry’s selective response to a plethora of concerns that have surrounded the design and implementation of the law. But, this is also an opportunity for the JPC to carry out a detailed examination of the long-standing gaps in India’s BD regime and how it needs to be reconciled with international standards, especially those under the CBD and its agreements. Equally important is also to recognise that biodiversity conservation is intrinsically connected with other ongoing global debates around climate change, food security and public health.

The JPC can do what the environment ministry has not managed to do so far, make the biodiversity law a people’s law and its conservation a popular political question.

Shalini Bhutani and Kanchi Kohli are independent legal researchers and jointly track the implementation of India’s biodiversity law.

Podcast: An Ancient Ayurveda Manuscript Unearthed in China

A British soldier hunting for a killer in 1889 acquires an ancient medical pocketbook on the Silk Road.

On the treacherous Karakoram Pass between India and China, a towering Pathan hacked a Scottish trader to death in 1888. The murderer ate a meal and slept in his victim’s tent. The next day, he disappeared.

More than a year later, British officer Hamilton Bower set out to track him. He travelled for months from Kashmir and into China. He arrived in Kuchar, an ancient Buddhist centre on the Silk Road at the edge of the Taklamakan desert. Snowy peaks of the Tian Shan range framed the city. There was no sign of the killer.

But Bower learned the land had yielded something else entirely unexpected. He befriended a local man who told him about the ruins of a Buddhist kingdom in the desert. After much persuasion, the man led Bower to the site. They left at midnight and rode for hours. As the sun rose, it illuminated a 50-foot-tall stupa of sun-dried bricks and crumbling wooden beams. It was there in the ruins that the man had earlier found a pocketbook.

When they returned to Kuchar, Bower examined the makeshift book. Wooden boards and string held together sheets of birch bark covered in Sanskrit lettering. Bower found it so intriguing he had bought it from the man. It was only months later when he returned to India that the book’s ancient past was revealed.

What was this book, and why is it so important? Listen to Episode 6 of the Scrolls & Leaves podcast to find out how this book unearthed from deep in the desert was an important link in the history of India’s medical traditions.

The episode traces how healing plants have transformed our history. They are not only our earliest forms of medicine, but their pursuit has created channels of trade and plunder, exploration and empires. And as the bedrock of the modern pharmaceutical industry, the transformation of plants has sometimes overthrown millennia of indigenous medical wisdom.

Listen using the audio player, and subscribe here. This episode is presented in immersive sound and you can place yourself in the scene if you listen with headphones.

Govt Says Syllabus Outline Drafted To Integrate ‘Ayush Knowledge’ Into School Curriculum

The outline was sent to the Department of School Education and Literacy, the Rajya Sabha was told on Tuesday.

New Delhi: A team of experts from the National Institute of Ayurveda, a deemed-to-be university, has drafted an outline of syllabus based on Ayurveda and Yoga for students from nursery to Class XII and it has been sent to the Department of School Education and Literacy, the Rajya Sabha was told on Tuesday.

In a written reply to a question on whether the government has any plans to integrate AYUSH knowledge into the curriculum right from the school level, AYUSH minister Sarbananda Sonowal said, “Yes, the Implementation Committee of National Education Policy, 2020 formed by the Department of Higher Education includes experts from the Ministry of AYUSH.”

“As per the meeting held on July 19, 2021, of the Implementation Committee, an action taken report has been shared by the Ministry of Ayush regarding inputs for implementation of New Education Policy,” he said.

“Further, a team of experts from the National Institute of Ayurveda (NIA), a deemed-to-be university under De-novo category, has drafted an outline of syllabus based on Ayurveda and Yoga for schoolchildren from 1st to 10/12th standard including Nursery, LKG and UKG levels which has been sent to the Department of School Education and Literacy,” Sonowal said.

On whether the government has developed an immunity-boosting kit to protect children up to the age of 16 from COVID-19 until a vaccine is available for them, the minister said the All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA) has developed an immunity-boosting ‘Bala Raksha Kit’ for children in this age group.

This kit has been made under the strict guidelines of the Ministry of AYUSH. It fights common infections and keeps children healthy. The kit comprises Syrup Bal Ayu Raksha Kwatha (consisting base) that has medicinal qualities, apart from Anu Oil, Samshamani Vati and Chywanprash, Sonowal said.

It has been manufactured by Indian Medicines Pharmaceutical Corporation Limited, a government of India enterprise, at its Uttrakhand-based plant, he said.

Uttarakhand Government to Allow Ayurvedic Doctors to Prescribe Allopathic Medicines

The Ayush minister said the decision was to benefit the people living in the state’s remote hill areas, where the primary health centres mostly have ayurvedic doctors.

Dehradun: The ayurveda-versus-allopathy debate has taken a new turn, with the Uttarakhand government deciding to allow ayurvedic doctors to prescribe select allopathic medicines to patients in emergencies.

Making the announcement on the sidelines of a programme to mark the International Day for Yoga at the Uttarakhand Ayurvedic University on Monday, Ayush minister Harak Singh Rawat said the decision was taken for the benefit of the people living in the state’s remote hill areas, where the primary health centres mostly have ayurvedic doctors.

There are around 800 ayurvedic doctors in Uttarakhand and as many ayurvedic dispensaries, of which 90% are located in the remote hill areas, he said.

The decision, which requires changes in the Uttar Pradesh Bharatiya Chikitsa Adhiniyam, will help people living in the disaster and accident prone hill areas who are deprived of proper healthcare facilities, the minister said.

However, the announcement sparked a sharp reaction from the Indian Medical Association (IMA), Uttarakhand, which termed it “illegal”.

“It is illegal and falls into the category of mixopathy,” said IMA Uttarakhand secretary Ajay Khanna.

“Mixopathy will only harm patients in an emergency. The Supreme Court and the high courts are very clear on this. Ayurvedic doctors cannot practice allopathy as they are not qualified for it,” he said.

“How can ayurvedic doctors prescribe allopathic medicines without knowing about allopathy?” Khanna asked.

However, Bharatiya Chikitsa Parishad, Uttarakhand vice president and senior physician J.N. Nautiyal welcomed the decision, saying 80% of the state’s population, which is deprived of healthcare facilities, is going to benefit immensely from it.

On the IMA’s reaction to the announcement, Nautiyal said, “The IMA has double standards. Ayush doctors work in the ICUs and emergency wards of hospitals. The IMA has no problem with that. But now, when something is going to benefit such a large number of people in the hills, they have a problem.”

The ayurveda-versus-allopathy debate began in the country last month, when Ramdev questioned the efficacy of allopathic drugs in the treatment of COVID-19, prompting IMA’s Uttarakhand unit to serve a defamation notice to the yoga exponent and demand a compensation of Rs 1,000 crore from him.

Ramdev Baba: Icon of ‘New India’

Does the Baba use a mask? No. Has he taken a vaccine shot? No. Has the virus made any difference to his well-being? A resounding no. What more is needed to disprove the hollow claims of allopathy?

Amazing man, this Ramdev Baba.

He has the skill, he has the money, he has the clout, and he has the chutzpah to know that he has it all.

Where many antecedent gurus derived legitimacy and influence from being hangers-on to politicians in power, politicians now derive legitimacy and influence from being proximate to Ramdev Baba.

A feat of exceptional grit and imagination that.

Where a Rasputin had merely some placebo potion to quieten an ailing Romanov Prince, Ramdev ji has remedies for every ailment in the book of human disorders.

Little wonder then, that no less than the Union minister of health himself proceeded to the launch of Ramdev’s claimed ‘cure‘ for COVID-19 itself, called Coronil.

Which is not all; news is that the enterprising minister of health in the Haryana government has decided to distribute Ramdev’s ‘Coronil Kit’ to affected people, with half of the cost paid by the state and half by the Patanjali establishment.

The usual suspects who crib against the idea of “new India” question the Haryana government’s munificence in this case when people everywhere are having to pay for vaccines – unlike, in passing, in the richest country in the world, the United States, where vaccines are dispensed free of cost to the citizen.

These poor losers also point out that the Ramdev Coronil drug has no approval from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), and is hence an unauthorised and potentially dangerous operation. As if such scientific squeamishness has any place when the virus is so insistent.

After all, laws are meant to be broken when the chips are down. And only the spiritually endowed may provide the lead in such eventualities.

Also read: The Political Theatre of Harsh Vardhan v. Baba Ramdev

As to potential threat to people’s lives, did not the honourable health minister himself once sing praises of indigenous cures, even citing from a book titled Hindu Superiority which underlines how our ancient culture has been ahead of everybody in the matter of medicine? As, indeed, in most everything else – a “universally acknowledged fact” (to borrow from Jane Austen) that makes Bharat Vishwa Guru.

Remember now that Guru Ramdev is no stranger to controversy. What original innovator ever is?

Wasn’t he once in 2006 accused of mixing human and animal ingredients in drugs of his brand? Did not that matter go to the AYUSH ministry for verification? Did they not find, to quote the health minister of that period, A. Ramadoss, “Some violation of the law with regard to adulteration and labelling”?

So what came of that conspiracy? Zilch, and rightly so, since there is no saying, a priori, how much evidence the antagonists of “new India” may fabricate to malign ancient wisdom.

Narendra Modi and yoga tycoon Baba Ramdev embrace at a rally in New Delhi on March 23, 2014, two weeks before the start of national elections that would see Modi elected prime minister. Photo: Reuters/Adnan Abidi

Another accusation that Ramdev Baba’s drugs do not print the detail of ingredients used as required by law is just another attempt to pry into mysteries that make up the magical cures the Baba is able to provide.

Curiosity, as has been well said, only kills the cat.

Also read: Mind Your Own Business, Ramdev

Allopaths and their poverty of thought

The IMA (Indian Medical Association) represents the vast body of India’s allopathic fraternity.

Enslaved by Macaulay, decades of decrepit Congress rule kept denying them the opportunity to revisit the treasures of Orientalist knowledge.

A whole establishment of hospitals and dispensaries thus kept coming up in post-Independence India (although hardly sufficient to meet popular need) which waylaid Bharatiya nagriks into the dangerous pharmaceutical dispensations of allopathy and the never-ending greed of practitioners.

To a point where millions were brainwashed into believing that such epidemics as those of typhoid, small pox, polio etc. were actually eradicated through alllopathic vaccination drives, however conducted without creative controversy.

Any sensible Indian knows that vaccination had nothing to do with those eradications, and that such visitations and their disappearance were foretold supernatural phenomenon to which the dumb-driven allopaths remain obtuse.

Until COVID-19 unraveled the perfidy.

It took a Ramdev ji to underline the grim fact that many doctors who were twice vaccinated still lost their lives. (That an Ayurvedic operator in Hapur also lost his life reportedly cannot but be an interested canard spread by a hostile media channel (NDTV-India, Prime Time, 9 pm, June 2, 2021).

Thus, if a physician cannot heal herself, how may she be expected to heal anyone else?

Does the Baba use a mask? No. Has he taken a vaccine shot? No. Has the virus made any difference to his well-being? A resounding No. What more is needed to disprove the hollow claims of allopathy? “Stupid” indeed this hankering after western systems of medicine, the Guru says.

Also read: IMA Files Complaint Against Ramdev Over ‘Wrongful’ Representation of Allopathy

But alas, the allopaths, even though vanquished, like the good old village school master (Oliver Goldsmith), insist that millions have been cured over the last two years worldwide by their interventions, even as there is no authenticated report yet that anyone has been so cured by Coronil. A seditious rather than a scientific argument.

O ye men of little faith, say we.

Alas, deaf to the admonition of the Guru, this lost tribe of allopaths now agitate to see him held accountable for having rubbished their labours and the system of cures they practice.

Not thinking who is to listen to their outmodedly vain plaint in “New India” when their own minister thought if fit to launch the Guru’s Coronil.

Baba Ramdev at the launch of Coronil and Swasari. Photo: PTI

If anything, the honourable minister is to be complimented for seeking some expression of regret from the Baba, not for rubbishing allopathy but making its practitioners feel bad. There is a sensitive minister after all.

As “old India” (beginning 1947) struggles to survive “new India” (beginning 1500 B.C.), what chance has it to weigh against three millennia of the “new”?

For now, negligible, it must be admitted.

Given the revolutionary urgency of the medical make-over from the old to the new, it might be well for the powers-that-be to postpone the barren Central Vista craze that serves no purpose of health and divert attention and resource to revamping the country’s hospitals and dispensaries to dump the old and embrace the infrastructure of the new.

Also read: How the Delhi High Court Dismissed Concerns Over the Central Vista Project

Let the needles, scalpels, x-ray machines, pharmaceutical laboratories of fake research and manufacture yield place to condiments, herbs, expert mixers and spiritually-endowed gurus who best suit the genius of a people steeped in archives of mystery and transcendental insight.

That would be an epochal leap indeed made by “new India” in the altruistic public cause, much more so than a new parliament building so long as residues of the “old India” may continue to be voted into its precincts.

May we trust the good Guru Ramdev Baba to wield his clout and see this policy shift through, sooner than later, before the third dreaded wave of the mlecha coronavirus comes visiting?

Think how far ahead that would put us, as well as cause a bountiful export of Coronil to a world still struggling with allopathic petulance.

We could both cure the world which as we hold is one family (Vasudevakutumbkum), and refurbish our national coffers exponentially to win the race to a $ 5 trillion economy.

Think about it.

Petition Filed in Bihar Court Wants Baba Ramdev Booked For Sedition

The petition filed before the court of acting CJM Shailendra Rai here has dubbed Ramdev’s utterances as “fraudulent”, and sought to invoke IPC sections pertaining to sedition and cheating besides the Disaster Management Act.

Muzaffarpur: Baba Ramdev has been dragged to court by a resident of Muzaffarpur in north Bihar, who has prayed that the yoga guru be booked for sedition in the wake of his alleged disparaging remarks against modern medicine and its practitioners.

The petition was filed in the court of the chief judicial magistrate (CJM) by Gyan Prakash through his counsel Sudhir Kumar Ojha, himself a “serial litigant” who has filed petitions against top politicians, Bollywood stars and foreign heads of state.

The matter will be taken up for hearing on June 7.

Ramdev, the founder of the Patanjali Group, is in the eye of the storm over uncharitable comments against the allopathic system of medicine, including coronavirus vaccines.

The Indian Medical Association has been up in arms against the yoga guru for denigrating the tireless services rendered by doctors during the COVID-19 pandemic to which many medical practitioners have also succumbed.

His known proximity with the BJP notwithstanding, Ramdev’s comments have been met with disapproval by many leaders of the party in power at the Centre.

(PTI)

IMA Files Complaint Against Ramdev Over ‘Wrongful’ Representation of Allopathy

The IMA said Ramdev has “wilfully and deliberately spread false, baseless and malicious information” about the treatment of COVID-19 patients with established and approved methods and drugs.

New Delhi: The Indian Medical Association (IMA) on Thursday lodged a police complaint against yoga guru Ramdev, seeking an FIR over his “dishonest and wrongful representations” of allopathy.

In the complaint submitted at the IP Estate Police Station, the apex medical body said Ramdev has “wilfully and deliberately spread false, baseless and malicious information” about the treatment of COVID-19 patients with established and approved methods and drugs.”

“We have received the complaint and enquiry is being conducted,” said a senior Delhi Police officer.

The IMA’s complaint, dated May 9 said, “Swami Ramdev, in order to take advantage of the Covid situation, on a public platform in furtherance of his ulterior motives has put forth dishonest and wrongful representations with regard to allopathic medicines and other allied treatment techniques of modern medical science for the COVID-19 virus.”

“In a video which has surfaced and is being shared widely throughout the social media, Swami Ramdev is seen wilfully and deliberately spreading false, baseless and malicious information with regard to the treatment of various patients suffering from COVID-19 by established and approved treatment methods and drugs,” it said.

The IMA had earlier written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding that yoga guru Ramdev be booked immediately under sedition charges for alleged misinformation campaign on vaccination and challenging government protocols for treatment of COVID-19.

The apex medical body of modern doctors has also served a defamation notice on Ramdev for his alleged disparaging remarks against allopathy and allopathic practitioners, demanding an apology from him within 15 days, failing which it said it will demand compensation of Rs 1,000 crore from the yoga guru.

On Sunday, Ramdev was forced to withdraw a statement made in the viral video clip in which he is heard questioning some of the medicines being used to treat the coronavirus infection and saying that “lakhs have died from taking allopathic medicines for COVID-19”.

The remarks were met with vociferous protests from the doctors’ association, following which Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan asked him to withdraw the “extremely unfortunate” statement.

A day later, the yoga guru posed 25 questions to the IMA in an ‘open letter’ on his Twitter handle, asking if allopathy offered permanent relief for ailments such as hypertension and type-1 and type-2 diabetes.

He went on to list modern-day ailments such as Parkinson’s disease and wondered if allopathy had any painless cure to treat infertility, reverse ageing and increase hemoglobin.

Soon after, Ramdev’s close aide Acharya Balkrishna took to Twitter, saying the yoga guru and Ayurveda were being targeted by allopathic practitioners under the IMA as part of a conspiracy.

(PTI)

Mind Your Own Business, Ramdev

An AIIMS doctor’s open letter to the owner of a major business house.

Dear Ramdev Yadav ji,

First things first, I decline to prefix your name with Baba for a simple reason. For me, Baba is a reverence reserved for the likes of Farid Shah, Bulle Shah or Rehman (Baba). In my honest opinion, self-proclaimed Babaship (I know it’s not a word) is nothing more than optics for someone like you, a successful businessman. My favorite baba, Baba Farid Ganj-e-Shakar had once said, “If you want the position of a saint, remain away from the king’s family.” How apt, isn’t it?

Anyway. Coming to your recent vulgar mockery of allopathy and allopathic physicians, I can understand your frustration at this uncalled for derision. After all, a sick human is the easiest wager for the healer – I mean healer from any branch of healing. For the vulnerable sick of this country, who have literally been disowned by the state, healers can smell ample opportunities of money heist. Since you like to talk in simple idioms, its like hounds smelling meat. No wonder the pandemic has created enough meat for all types of hounds to come and feast. But Ramdev ji, even hounds respect each other. They respect strength and most importantly, know their limitations and vulnerability. It’s a different matter that worse than hounds are jackals. They are the cowards who howl when hungry, who howl when angry and who howl when they fear that a stronger opponent is out there and will get away with the half-eaten carcass. Let us vow to not behave like jackals at least!

As for your very boorish condemnation of allopathy and doctors, I wouldn’t be wrong to assume that your arrogance got the better of you in that moment and you got carried away. What else can explain such silly comments from a smart businessman like you? Or were you naïve enough to be unaware of the backlash from my fraternity? I don’t think you are that stupid Yadav ji. Everyone guards their bread like you do, doctors included. By the way, lets put this on record that what you said in that video about doctors and allopathy was not only unscientific, but smelled of ignorance on your part. Ignorance smeared with hate. When ignorance combines with hate, it becomes such a toxic mix that it even singes the hater. In fact, I have seen such ignorance from you on many other occasions. But let us not discuss those in the present moment because I sense you are already under significant pressure for your silly comments, else why would you apologise to my fraternity and that too on a mere friendly rap on the knuckles from the health minister of the country who also happens to be an allopath.

What intrigues me about your condemnation of allopathy is not your lack of knowledge but your self-vainglory. You are so absolute about your science of Ayurveda that it makes me look at all you do with suspicion. Absolutism is the biggest enemy of rationality. Your claims to cure diseases as serious as cancers is laughable Ramdev ji. Do you even realise that you have become a laughingstock for the world when you claim to treat blood cancer in umpteen videos? And yes, it is possible that a few patients of blood cancer (while in your care) might have gone into remission, but to be so sure of cure is nothing less than unsullied foolishness. I know you have monetary interests when you claim so but then absolutism is what will finally get the better of you and your 9500 crore rupees business empire. I would thus advise caution.

Doctors protest against Baba Ramdev’s remarks on allopathy at AIIMS hospital in New Delhi, May 25, 2021. Photo: PTI

Tall claims, whether of Ayurveda, homeopathy and allopathy, need scrutiny and validation. Your absolutism is what endangers your field and your words. We live in a world of suspicion. To question the doctor is correct. To conclude her/his actions without the scrutiny of science is a sin. For example, many liver specialist friends of mine have told me about the disastrous effects of the chemical giloy, which I am told is also used in your wonder drug Coronil. They are seeing significant toxic effects of giloy on the liver. But they are still in the stages of scrutinising their results. They are seeking validation. They are questioning their own belief before this could be brought into public domain. That’s how allopathy works, Ramdev ji. That’s how science works. To be honest, I know that somewhere deep in your heart you too respect allopathy and science. Why else would you bring an allopathic doctor on stage every time you claim a cure for a disease. I have seen so many videos where you ask him to validate what you claim. Strange indeed!

This is not a battle of ‘my field versus your field’. Even if your interests are monetary, science and rationality should win. I am with science and the only thing that science has taught me is to suspect my own hypothesis, to discard absolutism and to bring facts to scrutiny. I suppose as a businessman who has such a phenomenal success in the field, you should really mind your business. It is my humble request to you that you should leave science and rationality to us. Remember, history has a knack of catching up with everyone, be they an unethical doctor, an unjust ruler or a counterfeit Baba.

Professor Shah Alam Khan, Department of Orthopaedics, AIIMS, New Delhi. Views are personal.