'RAMDEV CROSSED RED LINE BY FALSE CLAIMS'

Baba Ramdev crossed red line by falsely claiming he could cure COVID-19 and it forced us to move the court, said IMA president R V Asokan on Monday, as reported by PTI.

It is unfortunate that people believed Ramdev's claims due to his high profile, the IMA chief said on yoga guru's comments on modern medicine.

Ramdev and his associate Balkrishna issued a renewed apology in major newspapers last week for the misleading advertisements of Patanjali's medicinal products.

This time, the apology was more prominent, following criticism from the Supreme Court for not adequately displaying it earlier.

In the advertisement, Ramdev and Balkrishna expressed their sincere apologies, both individually and on behalf of Patanjali, for failing to comply with the directives of the Supreme Court of India.

Patanjali had also issued an apology earlier, but the apex Court questioned whether its size matched the misleading advertisements for its drugs.

Meanwhile, on non-allopathic forms of medicine, Asokan said "Not against traditional systems of medicine, we have lived together and respect each other."

The Supreme Court while issuing orders in the contempt case against Patanjali Ayurved also turned its glare on the practices of the Indian Medical Association, misleading advertisements published by other consumer companies.

During the Covid years, Patanjali introduced Coronil in 2021, with Ramdev hailing it as the "first evidence-based medicine for COVID-19". Patanjali had claimed its Coronil medicine received certification from Ayush Ministry as per WHO’s certification scheme. However, the Indian Medical Association was 'shocked and denounced this as a "blatant lie".

Tensions between the medical community and Patanjali heightened when a video surfaced of Ramdev criticising allopathy as a "stupid and bankrupt science". The IMA issued a legal notice to Ramdev, demanding an apology. In response, Patanjali Yogpeeth stated that Ramdev was merely reading from a forwarded WhatsApp message and harbors no animosity toward modern science.