IMA Slams Baba Ramdev For Anti-allopathy Remarks, Legal Suit on Way

Dehradun: Following Ramdev's comments about allopathy doctors, the Uttarakhand division of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) has demanded that the Yoga Guru be prosecuted.

Dr. Ajay Khanna, President of the IMA state chapter, stated that a letter was written to the Chief Minister and Chief Secretary in this regard on Monday evening.

"In the letter, it is written that there is a lot of resentment among the IMA doctors against the statement of Baba Ramdev. The Union Health Minister has also sent a notice to Ramdev on the same stating that the statement is considered incorrect", Dr. Khanna said.

He went on to say that the state government should take immediate action against Ramdev. On behalf of the IMA, a defamation notice has been filed against Baba Ramdev, according to Dr. Ajay Khanna.

"In addition to a defamation case that will be filed soon, an FIR will also be lodged, if the government did not take concrete action on the same", he said.

Ramdev withdrew his statements on allopathic medicine after receiving a strongly-worded letter from Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan who called his remarks "inappropriate".

"We do not oppose modern medical science and allopathy. We believe that allopathy has shown immense progress in surgery and the lifesaving system and served humanity. My statement has been quoted as part of a WhatsApp message that I was reading during a meeting of volunteers. I am sorry if it has hurt anyone's sentiment," wrote Ramdev in his letter to the Union Health Minister in Hindi.

The Indian Medical Association (IMA) sent a legal notice to yoga guru Ramdev on Saturday for allegedly making anti-allopathy comments and "defaming" scientific medicine.

The Patanjali Yogpeeth Trust, on the other hand, has denied that Ramdev misled people by making "unlearned" remarks about allopathy and defamed scientific medicine, as claimed by the IMA.

"IMA brings to the notice of our Health Minister, a video circulating in social media portraying, the celebrated Yoga Guruji saying that `modern allopathy ek aisi stupid aur diwaliya science hai` (modern allopathy is a stupid and failed science)," the association said in its statement.

In the video that has gone viral on social media, Yoga Guru Ramdev was reading aloud a WhatsApp forwarded message, according to a statement from the Patanjali Yogpeeth Trust in Haridwar.