A day after the Indian Medical Association (IMA) took yoga guru Baba Ramdev to task for remarks criticizing allopathy, his aide Acharya Balkrishna claimed that IMA president Johnrose Jayalal was conspiring to convert the country to Christianity.
Last week Ramdev in a video clip had said that allopathy — the treatment of disease by drugs or surgery — is a “stupid science” and over 10,000 doctors have died even after taking both doses of Covid-19 vaccine.
“As part of the conspiracy to convert the entire country to Christianity, yoga and Ayurveda [alternative medicine] are being maligned by targeting Ramdev,” Balkrishna tweeted on May 25.
“Countrymen, wake up now from the deep slumber, otherwise the generations to come will not forgive you.”
However, Father Julius Arackal, secretary of the Indian Catholic Bishops’ Conference’s office of health, told UCA News that the “Indian government vaccine is a scientifically proven fact.”
He added: “The country is going through very difficult times and struggling to cope with the second wave of Covid-19, so we should promote unity and appreciate all good gestures.”
Our priorities should be to save lives instead of creating differences between caste and creed
IMA president Jayalal is a Christian and comes from the southern state of Tamil Nadu.
“How can Balkrishna claim that the IMA is trying to convert people in the name of vaccination just because the IMA’s president is from one particular group and from one particular state?” Father Arackal asked.
“Our priorities should be to save lives instead of creating differences between caste and creed.”
Father Arackal ponited out that even last July, long before vaccines reached final trials, Ramdev’s Patanjali Ayurved drug company claimed Coronil could provide strong protection against the coronavirus.
Later, the Ayush Ministry (Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy) said Coronil could be sold only as an immunity booster and not as a cure.
After Ramdev’s video comments that “modern allopathy is a stupid and failed science,” the IMA’s lawyers wrote to Ramdev on May 22 disputing his statements and his “defaming” of scientific medicine.
After the criticism from the IMA, doctors and other experts, as well as a letter from Health Minister Harsh Vardhan calling his remarks “inappropriate,” Ramdev withdrew his comments on allopathic medicine.
This did not go down well with Balkrishna, whose tweet included a clip from a website that had a photo of IMA president Jayalal. His tagline asked: “Doctor or pastor?” He said Jayalal is involved in the conversion of people to Christianity. However, Jayalal told the Times of India that “I have never done or intended to do anything with religion.”
D.D. Chaudhary, a member of the IMA’s central working committee, told media that “statements like this will create confusion and division among the masses. People will be confused and suffer.”
Mukti Prakash Tirkey, editor of a weekly newspaper in New Delhi, said it was unfortunate that when the country is suffering, a few people with vested interests are indulging in cheap publicity.
“Ramdev and his company can’t deny that medical science was the only answer to the present pandemic,” the Catholic tribal activist said.
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