Book Ramdev for sedition, IMA writes to PM
NEW DELHI: The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, asking that yoga guru Ramdev be booked under sedition charges for allegedly spreading misinformation on vaccination and challenging government protocols for treatment of Covid-19.
The Uttarakhand chapter of IMA has sent a ₹1,000-crore defamation notice to the yoga guru.
The letter said that in a viral video, Ramdev was seen claiming that 10,000 doctors have died in the country despite taking both the doses of the vaccines. Such statements were persuading people not to get the Covid-19 vaccines against national interest of overcoming the pandemic, IMA said. “This in our opinion is a clear-cut case of sedition in addition to causing irreversible damage to the national interest and the poor masses of this country,” read the letter by IMA.
The association clarified that the country lost 753 doctors duryaas ing the first wave of the pandemic when vaccines weren’t available and 513 so far during the second wave of the pandemic. “None in the first wave could receive the vaccine and the majority who had died in the second wave also could not take their vaccine for various reasons,” the letter said.
IMA alleged this was a ploy to make profits at the expense of several lives.
“We opposed certain drugs which were being falsely promoted as “curative” drugs, without any approval from the ministry or competent authorities. Ministry of AYUSH had also issued a Press Release to Patanjali to stop advertising or claiming its drug Coronil as a cure for Covid-19,” the letter said.
IMA also said it was making the task of frontline workers of getting people vaccinated more difficult.
“They (frontline workers) are being assaulted and attacked by people who have fallen for such rumours and superstitions,” the letter said.
IMA previously demanded an apology from Ramdev over his remarks on allopathic medicine, calling it a “stupid science”. He withdrew his statements after receiving a strong-worded letter from Union health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, who called his remarks “inappropriate”.
Ramdev’s aide Acharya Balkrishna later took to Twitter, saying the yoga guru and ayurveda were being targeted by allopathic practitioners.