Baba Ramdev has popularised yoga, but Chief Justice NV Ramana, who is presiding over a Supreme Court bench, questioned why he should criticise alternative medical practises and said that “he must restrain (from) condemning the other systems.”
“He has amazing insight into his system. Why should he accuse all physicians, allopathy, and all medical systems? In the end, we revere him. He made yoga more well-known. We all used to watch Yoga at his programs. He shouldn’t, however, critique the other systems. What is the assurance that the Ayurvedic system or whatever one he chooses will heal every illness? And the kind of commercials that portray all doctors as murderers, the CJI continued.
Hearing a complaint from the Indian Medical Association (IMA), which accused Ramdev of waging a smear campaign against modern medicine and immunisation, was a bench that also included Justices Hima Kohli and CT Ravi Kumar.
Ramdev purportedly criticises allopathy in advertisements published in national dailies, according to the IMA’s argument.
When speaking on behalf of the IMA, counsel Prabhas Bajaj pointed to a few of them, saying, “And it (advertisements) state you will go blind, you will suffer from allopathy for the rest of your life, and your bones will weaken.”
“That’s a different issue, but he can’t misuse the doctors and the processes,” the CJI retorted. He should refrain from criticising other systems. The Union government was then given notice by the court.
In addition to making “disparaging remarks” about allopathy, the advertising, according to Bajaj, also make claims regarding research and evidence-based treatment for conditions including high blood pressure and diabetes. According to him, the advertising’s message is “seriously disrupting the harmony of all the systems.” He said that the public is being misled as a result, alleging that “all of this is being done exclusively for business objectives.”
The council said that although there are national laws declaring that making such deceptive representations is illegal, nothing is done about it.
The council was asked by Justice Ravi Kumar if he was asserting that everything being asserted is quackery. He remarked, “After reading this, it seems you are labelling this as quackery.
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