The IMA on Saturday urged the Centre to book baba Ramdev under the Epidemic Diseases Act for his remarks on allopathy space of medicine. The collective body of doctors in India also threatened the Centre that it will move to court if the Health Ministry doesn’t take cognizance of the “false and baseless” statements made by Ramdev.
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Official Statement
IMA issues press release over a video on social media where Yog Guru Ramdev allegedly speaks against Allopathy. IMA demands that the "Union Health Minister either accept accusation & dissolve modern medical facility or prosecute him and book him under Epidemic Diseases Act." pic.twitter.com/FnqUefGjQA
— ANI (@ANI) May 22, 2021
“Enough is enough”: IMA slams Ramdev
The IMA came down hard in its statement to the Centre and said called Ramdev out for “repeatedly taking advantage of the situation and creating fear among public to sell his illegal drugs.”
“Dissolve the medicine facility or prosecute him”: IMA
The IMA in its statement wrote –
“When such idolised personal are making vitriolic comments, questioning the authority and integrity of the whole architecture of health ministry, the health minister, who himself is a practicing modern medicine allopathic postgraduate and the head of this ministry, should either accept the challenge and accusation of this gentleman and dissolve the modern medicine 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 Diseases Act to save millions of people from such unscientific utterances.”
Ramdev called doctors murderers in presence of Health Minister: IMA
The medical body in its statement also made reference to a video that made rounds of social media in which he was heard saying “Allopathy ek aisi stupid aur diwaliya science hai (allopathy is one such stupid and baseless science). Further, the statement also highlighted another instance when Ramdev had called medical doctors murderers in the presence of the Health Minister in the “pretext of selling his wonder drugs”.
Ramdev challenging integrity of DCGI: IMA
Further down, the statement also had IMA accuse Ramdev of misleading the public at large by making all “false and baseless acquisitions so that he can sell his illegal and unapproved drugs”. The Apex medical body also accused Ramdev of undermining the integrity of the DCGI that is led by the Health Minister himself when he claimed that lakhs of people died after having allopathy medications.
Ramdev deserves to be prosecuted for disobeying and causing danger to life: IMA
“Remdesivir and Favipiravir are approved by CDSCO (Central Drug Standard Control Organisation) and were notified for use for the covid patient by the Central Government in June-July, 2020. The said Notification was made by the Centre under section 2A of the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897. Therefore, u/s 3 of the Epidemic Disease Act read with Section 188 of IPC, Swami Ramdev deserves to be prosecuted for disobeying and causing danger to the life of many by making them believe and make them not to take the advice of allopathy drugs,”
-IMA wrote.
Coronil and Swasari controversy
IMA also wrote how Ramdev is a corporate giant and of a pharmaceutical unit and has made several false claims about his company’s products and has misled the public. In the statement, references were made about the Coronil and the Swasari products and the statement cited the criminal complaint which was made by a social worker in Muzaffar court against Ramdev for misleading and putting the lives of public at risk.
Earlier this year, the company was amid a storm of controversy after releasing a product called Coronil. Patanjali claimed that the medicine was “first evidence-based medicine” for COVID-19. Ramdev had also claimed that the World Health Organization team had visited his firm and gave Coronil a thumbs up to sell the product in 150 countries.
This claim was backed by several BJP leaders. However, later WHO had to intervene and confirmed that it had reviewed no such medicine and doesn’t back any claims on the effectiveness made by the company.
But the most outrage worthy moment in this incident came when it was the Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan himself who had attended the event where Ramdev had officially released the research paper on Coronil.
“Who is going to bell the cat?” IMA asks Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan
The statement was signed by the National President of the apex medical body Dr. J.A. Jayalal and said that if the health minister of the country Dr. Harsh Vardhan, who himself practices modern medicine and is an allopathic postgraduate, remains “mute spectator to this whole vandalism, who is going to bell the cat.”
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