A huge controversy erupted when a video of Baba Ramdev declaring allopathy as a hollow practice went viral. The country’s largest professional council of healthcare Indian Medical Association (IMA) jumped into the fray, taking a strong objection to his remarks. It threatened the Yoga Guru with a police complaint and a Rs 1000 crore defamation suit.
The association wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Union Health Ministry to take cognizance of the remarks made by Ramdev. The council had demanded that the Yoga guru be booked under sedition charges.
The Health Ministry promptly expressed its disapproval over Ramdev’s remarks, issuing a letter to the Yoga Guru to retract his statements. Ramdev complied with the request made to him by the Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and withdrew his statements against allopathic medicines.
This too did not satisfy IMA which went on to demand that Ramdev withdraw his comments in its entirety.
Now, the association has once again gone into a mindless rant calling the Yoga Guru a “traitor” and an “anti-national”, who does not deserve mercy.
Mr. Ramdev thought it fit to launch his tirade against National COVID-19 treatment. People creating confusion regarding the National Treatment Protocols and National Vaccination Programme are traitors and anti-nationals. They deserve no mercy: Indian Medical Association pic.twitter.com/dmN6A7ZEYx
— ANI (@ANI) June 1, 2021
The letter from the collective leadership of the Indian Medical Association read: “Anti-national elements have surfaced during every challenging moment in the history. Mr Ramdev thought it fit to launch his tirade against the National Covid-19 Treatment Protocol and National Cowid-19 Vaccination Programme looking for an opportunity to market his commercial products”.
In a letter signed by 17 present and past members of the association, IMA said that Ramdev’s remark against allopathy is a “totally different criminal Act”. It castigated the Yoga guru for causing irreparable damage to the efforts of the government of India in containing the pandemic. It said that Ramdev has created confusion in the mind of people against the National Covid protocol and National Vaccination Programme which the association said was “an anti national act of henious proportion”.
IMA said that it has demanded that Ramdev remarks be deemed as sedition and that the Yoga guru is prosecuted under the Disaster Management Act.
Coming down hard on Ramdev’s supporters, the association rebuked them for “attempting diversionary tactics of malicious attacks” on IMA and it’s National President JA Jayalal.
It is pertinent to note here that on May 27, a complaint had been filed with the Ministry of Home Affairs against Johnrose Austin Jayalal, the National President of the Indian Medical Association, seeking action against him for abusing his power and resorting to proselytization during the pandemic.
Legal Right Protection Forum, a legal-activism group, has written a detailed letter to the centre demanding strict action against John Rose Austin Jayalal, accusing him of using the Covid-19 pandemic to convert patients to Christianity. Jayalal had expressed his desire to use hospitals to convert people to Christianity.
Nevertheless, continuing its tirade against the Yoga guru, the Indian Medical Association insinuated that Baba Ramdev remarks was an assault on those thousands of doctors who have sacrificed their lives in the line of duty. “To trivialise these martyrs and the warriors is a sacrilege”, said IMA, urging the people of the nation to draw its own conclusion.