The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), an ally of the BJP government in Assam, has demanded an apology from Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali Ayurved after the company’s manager said the people of the state have “bad habits” and the company was “mentally conditioning them”.
In an interview to The New York Times, Patanjali’s Assam plant manager SB Singh said the people of Assam had “bad habits”, including eating non-vegetarian food and a lack of proper respect for the nation.
Singh said they had to conduct workshops to teach values to local recruits.
The AGP termed Singh’s remarks as “rubbish” and demanded an apology from Patanjali Ayurved.
“This is absolutely rubbish. This kind of attitude will never be tolerated in our state. They don’t know the culture and history of our land. We would urge the Patanjali to ask their representatives to study before making such irresponsible statement. We demand an apology from Patanjali,” Manoj Saikia, a senior leader of the AGP, told Outlook.
Earlier, Patanjali had faced opposition from environmentalists for damaging elephant corridors in Assam.
In 2016, Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal had laid the foundation of Patanjali’s Rs 1,000-crore Ghoramari plant in Tezpur, which is spread over 150 acres in 2016.
