The Supreme Court on Tuesday criticised yoga guru Ramdev for his disparaging remarks on allopathy and its practising doctors during grim times like the Covid-19 pandemic.
The bench was hearing a plea filed by the Indian Medical Association (IMA), which alleged a smearing campaign against modern medicine and Covid-19 vaccination. Appearing for IMA, Advocate Prabhas Bajaj argued, "The kind of disparaging statements made and the public is being misguided. We made representations, and no answer. The government also knows about such misleading ads by Ayush companies etc...They say that doctors were taking allopathy, but still succumbing during the COVID wave. If this happens unbated, then it will cause serious prejudice to us," reports Bar and Bench.
A Bench of Chief Justice of India NV Ramana and Justices Hima Kohli and CT Ravikumar observed, "Why is Baba Ramdev accusing doctors of allopathy etc? He popularised yoga. Good. But he should not criticize other systems. What is the guarantee that what he follows will cure everything?...Why is Baba Ramdev abusing the system like this?"
The court further proceeded to issue notice to the Central government seeking its reply to IMA's plea.
The IMA, earlier in a media statement, had said the Union Health Ministry should take action and prosecute Ramdev under the Epidemic Diseases Act as he had misled people by making "unlearned" statements and defamed scientific medicine.
Last year, when several people lost lives in the harrowing Covid-19 second wave, Ramdev Baba called allopathy "stupid and bankrupt" science. Ramdev was heard saying in a video, "Lakhs of people have died because of allopathic medicines, far more than those who died because they did not get treatment or oxygen."
