India’s Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to accept yoga guru Ramdev’s apology in a contempt hearing.
The hearing stemmed from his company’s promotion of Ayurvedic medicines that purported to treat diseases including cancer.
Ramdev rose to fame in the early 2000s for popularizing yoga, and in 2006 started Patanjali Ayurveda, a company that sells Ayurvedic and alternative medicine products.
Ramdev says his company, which sells everything from “herbal” toothpaste to “healthy” noodles, is the country’s richest and fastest-growing business empire with an annual turnover of Rs 4,500 crore. It is said that it controls one of the
However, he has faced criticism from both allopathic doctors and the courts for his purported criticism of modern medicine.
The court was hearing a petition filed in 2022 by the Indian Medical Association, the country’s premier modern medical body, against Patanjali Ayurveda advertisements attacking allopathy and claiming to treat certain diseases. .
The company had published a half-page advertisement in a newspaper in July 2022 titled, “Misconceptions spread by allopathy: Save yourself and your country from the misconceptions spread by the pharmaceutical and medical industries.”
IMA alleged that the company was spreading false information and making exaggerated claims about the effectiveness of Ayurvedic medicines.
Ramdev and his confidant and Patanjali Ayurveda co-founder Acharya Balakrishna apologized for the ad on Tuesday, but the court deemed their apology mere “lip service.”
“You should have made sure that this solemn undertaking was in letter and spirit. You could also say that you are sorry that it was not accepted. Your apology should not persuade this court. It is more of a lip service,” said a bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Asanuddin Amanullah.
Last November, the company assured the Supreme Court that it would not comment on the medical efficacy of its products. However, the company allegedly continued to run misleading advertisements about blood pressure, diabetes, asthma, arthritis and obesity.
The Supreme Court in February ordered the company to stop advertising and ordered Ramdev and Balakrishna to appear personally on Tuesday.
“This is a clear case of perjury. We are not closing the door to you, but we are telling you everything that we have come to know,” the bench said.
The court also blocked Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government for not taking action against him.
Mr. Ramdev is an influential figure and an ardent supporter of Mr. Modi. He started protests against the then-ruling Indian National Congress in 2014, and even supported Modi’s victory.
The government is also promoting Ayurveda and has set up a special ministry called Ayush to promote Ayurveda, naturopathy, homeopathy and yoga.
Ayush had promoted unproven traditional medicines, such as steam inhalation using mint or eucalyptus oil once a day, as a preventive measure against the coronavirus.
Ramdev also faced attacks for falsely promoting Coronil, a tablet manufactured by his company Patanjali as a treatment for the coronavirus.
Several states ruled by Mr. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party have purchased and distributed the purported treatment, and India’s health minister personally attended one of the drug’s launch events.
The yoga guru’s company has received more than $46 million in discounts on land acquisitions in states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party since Mr. Modi came to power in 2014, a Reuters investigation found.
“One wonders why the government chose to turn a blind eye,” the court said.
The Supreme Court asked Ramdev and Balkrishna to appear in court on April 10 for the next hearing.
Updated: April 2, 2024, 1:01 p.m.
