The All India Professionals’ Congress (AIPC) of Congress party has written to Union Ministers Harsh Vardhan and Ravi Shankar Prasad regretting the recent attacks on medical fraternity by Baba Ramdev and said that they were not only dangerous but contributed to vaccine hesitancy in an already fearful climate.
Former Minister and regional coordinator (South) J. Geeta Reddy and other members of AIPC pointed out in the letter a video clipping of Ramdev’s advise to a crowd on how yoga can help strengthen lungs against the virus. In another video that also went viral, he was heard vilifying COVID patients for spreading negativity and complaining about oxygen shortage.
Earlier in February, Ramdev released what he claimed to be first evidence based traditional medicine for COVID from his own basket of Patanjali products in the presence of Dr. Harsh Vardhan and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari. The product ‘Coronil’ was endorsed both by the Centre and the World Health Organisation (WHO). This was a blatant lie which was refuted publicly on twitter by WHO.
The repeated claims of Ramdev and his close aide Balkrishan, chairman of Patanjali Ayurveda, were in clear violation of provisions of Constitution, IPC, the Epidemic Diseases Act and Disaster Management Act. Hence, they should be met with full force of law. They ought to be prosecuted for not just spreading rumours about allopathy and practising doctors but also inciting communal discord.
