INDIA – An Indian state has accused yoga guru Baba Ramdev of criminal misconduct for promoting his traditional ayurvedic medicine as a cure for COVID-19 because it was only approved as an “immunity booster”, a case filing reviewed by Reuters showed.
Ramdev, whose yoga cures and ayurvedic products have made him popular in India, the United States and other countries, misled the public with claims his medicines could cure other diseases such as cardiac disorder and cancer, the filing showed.
Ramdev violated Indian drug law “by misleading the general public”, according to an April 16 filing which is not public and was submitted to a local court in the northern Haridwar city by a drugs regulator.
Ramdev violated Indian drug law “by misleading the general public”, according to an April 16 filing which is not public and was submitted to a local court in the northern Haridwar city by a drugs regulator.
The regulator in its filing is seeking a punishment for Ramdev that can extend up to six months in jail if convicted.
The new case in Haridwar in the northern state of Uttarakhand – where Ramdev and his firms are based – is the latest challenge for the yoga teacher who has appeared on TV shows offering yoga cures, consumer and health products and has millions of followers around the world.
India’s Supreme Court has criticised Ramdev in a separate case for publishing misleading advertisements of his medicines, and has refused to accept his apologies.
In the latest case in Haridwar, the regulator told the court that during the pandemic, Ramdev promoted his product “Coronil” as a cure even though “permission was obtained” for it only as “an immunity booster”, the filing shows.
Coronil was launched amid much fanfare in 2020 and endorsed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s then health minister on stage during an event with Ramdev in 2021.
“This is not only control, this is cure,” Ramdev said at one of the Coronil launch events then, according to India Today. He added that it had a “100% recovery rate within seven days and 0% death rate.”
The Haridwar case filing also accuses Ramdev of misleading the public in a recent 2024 advertisement for a product named “Divya Cystogrit” which the regulator says was marketed as “Cure Cancer with Cystogrit”.
Politics of medicine
There’s a political angle to this story as well. The company’s public face – yoga guru Baba Ramdev – is a vocal supporter of India’s ruling party, the BJP, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Modi even inaugurated Patanjali’s ayurvedic research facility in 2017.
The supreme court’s order, although temporary, is a blow to advocates of ayurvedic medicines, including the prime minister and his Hindu nationalist party. Some scientists have accused their government of promoting these alternative medicines at the expense of modern medicine, partly as a way to glorify India’s culture and history.
“One of the political ideas of this government is to glorify the Hindu tradition,” says Dhrubajyoti Mukherjee, president of the Breakthrough Science Society, an organization that promotes scientific thinking. “But in the name of our glorious past, the government is propagating obscure, unscientific ideas.”
Consider the Modi government’s own relationship to Patanjali.
A 2017 investigation by the news agency Reuters found the company has received more than an estimated $46 million in discounts for land acquisitions in states controlled by the BJP.
