‘Extremely unfortunate’: Harsh Vardhan asks Baba Ramdev to withdraw remarks on modern medicine

Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Sunday asked Baba Ramdev to withdraw his “objectionable remarks” on modern medicine, a day after the Indian Medical Association (IMA) demanded action against the yoga guru for "misleading" people during the pandemic.

"The statement disrespects the corona warriors and hurt the sentiments of the country. Your statement on allopathy can break the morale of healthcare workers and weaken our fight against COVID-19," Vardhan said in a letter to Ramdev, which he has also shared on Twitter.

Vardhan said that allopathic medicines have saved lives of crores and comments that it is responsible for death of lakhs is "extremely unfortunate".

The IMA had asked the health ministry to take action against Ramdev under the Epidemic Disease Act, saying his “unlearned statements” are a "threat to the literate society of the country as well as to the poor people falling prey to him". It had also threatened to move court if the government failed to take action against Ramdev.

"The Union health minister either accept accusation and dissolve modern medical facility or prosecute him and book him under Epidemic Diseases Act,” the IMA said in a strongly-worded statement on Saturday.

The doctors’ body had cited a recent video circulating on social media, and said Ramdev was seen saying that "allopathy ek aisi stupid aur diwalilya science hai… (allopathy is such a stupid science)".

“In this address, he (Ramdev) had further claimed that Remdesivir, Faviflu, and all other approved drugs by DCGI have failed and stated that ‘lakho logo ki maut allopathy ki dawai khanse se hui hai’ (lakhs of people have died after taking allopathic medicines), challenging the wisdom and integrity of DCGI and the head of all these, our honourable health minister,” the IMA had said.