Baba Ramdev : Crossing The Red Line

The rise and fall of Baba Ramdev astonished everyone. A few years back, he trended on all the possible television channels. Seeing his popularity grow by leaps and bounds, becoming a household name overnight, one was forced to think as to who he was and from where he came? In short, he rose like a phoenix and fell like the same! Probably, it was his overconfidence with the authorities or from the way the public trusted him blind-folded. When the world was fighting the novel Coronavirus and the medical teams, globally, were desperately fighting to find it’s cure, Ramdev did not hesitate once by commenting that the “modern medicine is a stupid and bankrupt science”. The comment was certainly in bad taste and was an utter disregard to our medical fraternity who fought like soldiers during such unprecedented times.

Indian Medical Association (IMA) president Dr RV Asokan said yoga guru Baba Ramdev crossed a red line when he claimed that he could cure COVID-19 and at the same time maligned modern medicine. In an interview with news agency PTI, Asokan said Ramdev went against the medical profession by saying “modern medicine is a stupid and bankrupt science”. He further added, “He went against the national interest when the government was driving the vaccination programme. He said 20,000 doctors died after taking two doses of the COVID vaccine. And he was having such a high profile that, you know, people believed what he said. That was the unfortunate part of it. He crossed a red line.”

Asokan said “We have been tolerating mediocracy in this country for too long. Our profession also has been tolerating this and we never wanted to prove anything to anyone. He crossed a line when he advertised about Coronil (a Patanjali tablet) and said the WHO had approved it, which was a wrong statement. Our leadership thought he has to be challenged. It was in 2022 and we had to channelise it through the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act. What has happened in the Supreme Court is two-three years of hard work”.

The Supreme court recently heard the IMA’s 2022 plea alleging a smear campaign against the COVID vaccination drive and modern systems of medicine. The court had asked Ramdev, his aide Acharya Balakrishna and Patanjali Ayurved Ltd last month to issue a public apology for not following its orders on misleading ads. In a video, Ramdev, in 2021, was allegedly heard saying, “Allopathy is a stupid science and medicines such as Remdesivir, Fabiflu, and other drugs approved by the Drugs Controller General of India have failed to treat COVID-19 patients.” His remarks caused massive outrage and the IMA sent a legal notice to him. Ramdev was later booked under Sections 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and other provisions of Disaster Management Act, 2005.

Though, the court has not said its final verdict yet. Asokan added, “We need to wait. Whether we are satisfied or not will depend on the verdict. It’s not about the apology that he has given, it is for the court to tell us whether he crossed the line by abusing modern medicine.” Whatever the verdict be, the act has certainly dented the image of Ramdev and people’s faith in Patanjali products, pushing him to soon become history in the world of yoga and ayurvedic science!