New Delhi: Baba Ramdev crossed a red line when he claimed he could cure COVID-19 and at the same time maligned modern medicine by calling it a "stupid and bankrupt science", Indian Medical Association president Dr R V Asokan said on Monday.
This is IMA's first comment since the Supreme Court's tongue lashing to Ramdev and his multibillion-dollar consumer goods empire Patanjali Ayurved last month over misleading ads. It comes a day before the top court is scheduled to hear the matter next.
The apex court is hearing IMA's 2022 plea alleging a smear campaign against the Covid vaccination drive and modern systems of medicine. The court had asked Ramdev, his aide Acharya Balakrishnan and Patanjali Ayurved Ltd last month to issue a public apology for not following its orders on misleading ads.
In an interaction with PTI editors, Asokan also said it was "unfortunate" that the Supreme Court criticised IMA and also the practices of private doctors. The "vague and generalised statements", he added, have demoralised private doctors.
We sincerely believe they need to look at what was the material before them. They perhaps did not consider that this was not the issue that was before them in the court."
"You can say anything but still a majority of doctors are conscientious... practicing according to ethics and principles. It does not behove the Supreme Court to take a broadside against the medical profession of the country which after all sacrificed so many lives for the Covid war," he added.
Asokan was replying to a query about the Supreme Court's observations in its hearing on April 23 that when it was pointing one finger at Patanjali, the remaining four fingers were pointed towards IMA.
During the same hearing, the top court questioned Patanjali's public apology and asked whether it was the same size as that of the advertisements published by the company for its products. The matter related to the apology published by Ramdev and his associate Acharya Balkrishna will be considered on April 30.
Asokan said Ramdev went against the medical profession by saying "modern medicine is a stupid and bankrupt science". "He went against the national interest when the government was driving the vaccination programme. He said 20,000 doctors died after taking two doses of the Covid vaccine. And he was having such a high profile that you know people believed what he said. That was the unfortunate part of it," he said.
Asked what made IMA take on Ramdev despite him being a big name and politically connected, Asokan said, "He crossed a red line. We have been tolerating mediocracy in this country for too long. Our profession also has been tolerating this and we never wanted to prove anything to anyone. He crossed a line when he advertised about Coronil (a Patanjali tablet) and said WHO has approved it which was a wrong statement."