Indian Medical Association (IMA) sends 1,000 crore defamation to Baba Ramdev

The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has served a defamation notice on Ramdev for alleged disparaging remarks against allopathy and allopathic doctors, demanding an apology from him within 15 days, failing which it said it will demand a compensation of Rs 1,000 crore from the yoga guru. The six-page notice served on behalf of IMA (Uttarakhand) secretary Ajay Khanna by his lawyer Neeraj Pandey describes the remarks by Ramdev as damaging to the reputation and the image of allopathy and around 2,000 practitioners of it who are part of the association.

Terming the remarks of the yoga guru a “criminal act” under section of 499 of the Indian Penal Code, the notice demanded a written apology from him within 15 days of its receipt, saying a compensation of Rs 1,000 crore will be demanded from him at the rate of Rs 50 lakh per member of the IMA if he failed to do so.  The notice has also asked Ramdev to make a video clip contradicting all his allegations and circulate it on the social media platforms where he had uploaded his earlier video levelling them. It further asked the yoga guru to withdraw a “misleading” advertisement from all platforms endorsing “Coronil kit”, a product of his firm, as an effective medicine for COVID-19, failing which an FIR and a criminal case will be lodged against him by the IMA.

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Sunday called yoga guru Ramdev's statement on allopathic medicines "extremely unfortunate" and asked him to withdraw the remark, saying it disrespects 'corona warriors' and can break the morale of healthcare workers. Ramdev later replied to the health minister saying he is taking back his words even as doctors across the country continue to slam him over the remarks.