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If you
have discovered a new drug for headache and want to market it- well
wait a minute (sorry the wait could be for a few years) your concoction
will have to go through animal toxicity studies, proof of effectiveness,
various phases of clinical trials, teratogenic experiments etc which
could take anything up to five years to be marketed. But, you could
give it an appropriate sounding name, say that the composition came
from a traditional text and you could market that without any of the
above formalities! If that is the case then the Drugs and Cosmetics
Act, The Drugs and Magical Remedies (objectionable) Advertisements Act
or in fact any other law of the land would not be applicable to you.
If it were to be called an ayurvedic remedy then that pharmacopia would
be applicable,if it were to be called homeopathic then those standards
would be applicable. But, the safest way would be to link to some religious
rites, adorn one self in the appropriate robes and start invoking the
names of deities of the appropriate religion!
If you
think this is hype, switch on your TV and switch on one of the channels
going by the names of god, religion, devotion, faith or any such and
you will be enlightened by people wearing robes of various colors(depending
on the religion which they claim to promote). One such character is
Ramdev, who has appropriated titles like guruji, gurumaharajji etc.
He claims to have found cures for everything starting from the common
cold to cancer, dandruff to AIDS. Sitting on a raised platform and supposedly
conducting yoga camps and promoting exercises for health, he enlightens
his audiences with pearls of his fathomless wisdom and keeps saying
that his objective is health for all. The question is - Is it
health for all or wealth for him ?
Well,
the answer seems to be the latter. He goes on the stage and starts flaunting
his flat stomach and starts huffing and puffing like one of those old
time steam engines and these episodes of breathing are interspersed
with interviews with patients, diagnosis and advice on treatment. There
are phone calls from all over with advice being sought for various diseases
the names of which he has difficulty in pronouncing - for example he
says tirigymingal neuralagia for trigeminal neuralgia. Though he has
problems pronouncing the words - he has no such when it comes to treatment.
He has treatment for every illness- the first would be to practice
pranayama and then would follow his unique diet and treatment. He
would also order the patient to go to the nearest what he calls as his
advisory center and collect medicines from there. Despite his claims
to the contrary what he runs is a clever racket of selling his useless
concoctions, amassing wealth in the name of yoga and a racket involving
millions of public money.
The modus
operandi of this clever trickster involves a number of clever(or rather
crooked) marketing techniques, manipulation of the media and stage managed
‘cures’.In Uttaranchal in a place called Pithoragarh, I had been
invited for tea to the residence of a professor of philosophy
at a local college. When I started speaking to his wife, she asked me
what I had to say about Ramdev. I replied that she would better answer
that as she had tried his treatment for hypertension and since it did
not work out had started on the medication prescribed by her doctor.
She was totally shocked and asked me how I found out that, I told her
that I had better yogic powers than her guru. She corrected me and said
her ex guru! This lady had been enamored by the TV campaigns of this
man who had been exhorting people to throw away their tablets and injections.
She had stopped taking treatment for her hypertension and started on
pranayama as advised by her TV guruji. Within a few weeks her blood
pressure shot up and she had to go back to her physician who soundly
reprimanded her for stopping the treatment. She had to be given higher
dosages of medicines for the situation to be brought under control.
In last October in a place called Hazaribagh in Jharkhand the local
reporter of the Times of India had a question for me. It was that whether
cancer could be cured by Ramdev’s yoga? When I said it was not possible,
he told me about his relative who had cancer. The oncologists had diagnosed
cancer of the colon at an advanced stage and had informed her that she
could live for a couple of years with the treatment. After seeing the
TV programs she had decided to go in for Ramdev’s yoga as it promised
a full cure. Within a month she was fully cured of all diseases - yes
you have guessed it - she had discarded her old body and breathed her
last. Yet another instance was in the Delhi University in department
of science communication. There was a seminar about communication of
scientific temper for the students and the faculty. A very senior professor
in the department of physics asked me whether yoga can cure asthma.
I replied that it could help to decrease the severity of the attacks.
He told me that by the practices of Ramdevs yoga, he was cured of asthma.
I replied as to what conclusion could be drawn from that and he said
that all asthmatics should be told to follow Ramdev’s techniques.
At that I informed him that I too had been suffering from asthma and
after I started swimming about 17 years ago, I did not have a single
attack and hence all asthmatics should be advised to take to swimming!
He was very angry at that and told me how I could say that. I told him
that the same subjectivity was applicable to both our statements!
It is
not that Ramdev restricts himself to physical exercises and advice.
He considers himself an authority on Ayurveda and prescribes his own
concoctions for a variety of ailments. Though he shouts from the
roof tops about the exploitation by the multinationals he charges exorbitant
rates for his preparations none of which have any records of safety
or efficacy. To ward off any litigation that may arise, he forces the
patients to sign an undertaking that they are very well aware that his
preparations have no approval and are taking them at their own risk!
Would any one buy a tablet for a headache from a pharmacy if such an
undertaking is asked for? A couple of years ago when there was an uproar
about the methods of manufacture of his medication, enquiries were done
and some of the samples were tested and found to contain human DNA.
He was prescribing medication containing bones from human skulls for
some calcium deficiencies. When questioned he said that in medicines
anything was ok! When he went to England we tried to raise some questions
about these by the rationalists in Britain. But, it appeared that the
question and answer sessions were all stage managed with his actors.
Many a time the TV sessions confirm the impression.Never does he admit
that any disease is incurable. There are only success stories with patients
having been given only days to live by modern scientific medicine having
lived for years after doing his yoga. All testimonies are supposedly
accompanied by reports which he himself reads and interprets. Every
TV session presented by him has instances of diabetics throwing
away their insulin and coming back to normal blood sugar levels after
following his yoga and pranayama, cancer patients with their tumors
melting away etc etc ad nauseum . Along with the descriptions
of the patients there are choicest sarcasms directed at modern systems
of medicine, the medical profession and the drug industry.
Ramdev
has a good amount of advice for the modern science. He comes to pre
conceived conclusions and adds that it is for the scientists to find
evidence to confirm them. For example he says that in the time of Mahabharatha
there were people who were twelve feet tall and now that the mankind
as such are becoming shorter and shorter. He also claimed that Yoga
will discover a cure for AIDS within a couple of years. When challenged
to prove that claim, which could be very dangerous as people who believed
him could engage in unprotected sex with the hope that he would cure
them, he beat a hasty retreat and claimed that he had been misquoted!
His clarification was that he had actually said that he was expecting
science to find a cure involving yoga for AIDS. With a person like him
one has to expect that! His hypocrisy is not limited to such. When confronted
with really serious cases, he advises them to go ahead with the prescribed
treatment and also take the concoctions recommended by him. If the patient
gets well he can always claim the credit while failures could be always
blamed on the defects of the other medicine! He is also very clever
in advertising his unproved remedies. It is always recommended by the
members of the audience who claim the healing powers of his preparations.
While he does not advice the diabetic to throw away his insulin, it
is the so called diabetic from the audience who makes such a claim.
That way Ramdev can keep away from any possible litigation.
His hypocrisy
is not limited to these. While he gets millions from the various govt.
agencies to develop universities etc. he also claims that he does free
service. Actually, those who attend his so called camps have to cough
up sizeable donations. The ones who have donated more get closer seats
and more space. The lesser mortals have to manage with cramped spaces
and farther distances from the proclaimer of egalitarian values!
While
advice and treatment are given to all and sundry when one looks at Ramdev
one is reminded of the old English adage- physician heal thyself. Because,
he has a drooping eyelid and facial tic which all his yogic antics do
not seem to heal! So, so much for the promoter of healing powers of
yoga.
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