JOIN USAct against Ramdev under Epidemic Diseases Act
The country’s experience of fighting the Covid-19 pandemic for more than one year shows that the fight is not just against the pandemic but against the tools and methods of disinformation and misrepresentation that constrain the fight. Ignorance and lack of information were inhibiting factors in the initial days, and even now they are a problem. But the mischief done and the misinformation spread by the statements and activities of persons like Baba Ramdev also do much harm to the cause of controlling the pandemic. His latest remarks have been especially egregious. He described the allopathic system as “stupid’’ and farcical and said that people had died because of the usage of allopathic medicines and not from a shortage of oxygen. He was forced to withdraw the statement in the face of public outrage but has since given indications that his views have not actually changed.
The Indian Medical Association (IMA) protested against the statement and has threatened to file a defamation case against Ramdev for disparaging allopathy and the use of allopathic medicines in Covid treatment. It has sought an apology. Lakhs of healthcare workers, including doctors, nurses and others, have risked their lives to save the lives of millions of Covid patients. Many have lost their lives in the process. To dismiss modern medicine and its practice as foolish is to belittle their sacrifices. The IMA also pointed out that the statement would weaken the vaccination campaign. It has the potential to mislead people who may have trust in him because of his high profile. Since the statements and claims he has made have the potential to hamper the national effort to fight the disease, Ramdev must be proceeded against under the Disaster Management Act and the Epidemic Diseases Act, as demanded by the IMA.
Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan’s muted criticism of Ramdev is revealing. Ramdev is a serial offender in making unscientific claims. He had claimed earlier this year that Coronil, produced by his company, was an evidence-based medicine for Covid. Later, in the face of criticism, he described it as an immunity booster. Harsh Vardhan had endorsed that product. The BJP government in Haryana is distributing one lakh Coronil kits among Covid patients. It is the patronage extended by the BJP and the government that has encouraged Ramdev to make his outlandish claims, cock a snook at science and take the people for a ride. It is a fact that the ecosystem of false claims about past glories, irrationality, quackery and cow urine therapy, promoted by the BJP, nourishes persons like Ramdev. They unravel not only the campaign against Covid but also the very idea of a modern, rational and scientific India.