On Wednesday, Patanjali Ayurved, led by Baba Ramdev, asserted that it is not engaged in disseminating “false advertisements or propaganda” concerning its products. The company expressed a willingness to accept any penalties imposed by the Supreme Court, including fines or even the most severe consequences, should it be proven guilty of making deceptive claims.
The day following the Supreme Court’s warning to the company about refraining from making “false” and “misleading” claims in its medicine advertisements purporting to cure various diseases, Patanjali Ayurved stated that it possesses a “database with more than one crore people, supported by real-world evidence, preclinical, and clinical evidence.”
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Additionally, the company expressed humble respect for the court, stating, “If we engage in false advertisements or propaganda, we have no objections if the honorable court imposes a fine of crores or even issues a death sentence.” During a press conference in Haridwar, Ramdev remarked that the apex court should have considered their perspective as well.
Ramdev stated that given the chance, he is personally prepared to present all facts, clinical evidence, and scientific research papers before the court to substantiate his claims.
Ramdev reiterated his commitment to his assertions of healing serious illnesses through Yoga and Ayurveda.
On Tuesday, a bench comprising Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah and Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra orally observed while hearing a plea of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), “All such false and misleading advertisements of Patanjali Ayurved have to stop immediately. The court will take any such infraction very seriously…” The top court, on August 23, 2022, had issued notices to the Union health ministry and Ministry of Ayush and Patanjali Ayurved Ltd, on the plea of the IMA alleging a smear campaign by Ramdev against the vaccination drive and modern medicines.
In its statement, Patanjali said, “We would like emphasise that we are not spreading any false propaganda. Hundreds of therapies of Yoga, Ayurveda, Naturopathy, Panchakarma, Shatkarma, fasting and with the integrated treatment of system, we have made thousands of people free from several diseases like BP, sugar, thyroid, asthma, arthritis, obesity, liver and kidney failure, and cancer.”
It further claimed, “We have the world’s best research centre on ayurveda, Patanjali Research Foundation, for research on traditional treatment and sanatan knowledge tradition. Where hundreds of world renowned scientists are conducting research, and by following more than 3,000 research protocols, close to 500 research papers have been published in the world’s highly reputed research journals.”
The company accused “some stubborn and so-called frustrated doctors of the medical sector, who oppose Yoga, Ayurveda and Naturopathy” of have a problem.
While acknowledging that diseases can be controlled with synthetic medicines, it said “but cannot be cured”, this problem of allopathy is not a problem for Yoga-Ayurveda.
“In the medical field, we have seen many modern practitioners those who are committing medical crimes by installing fake pacemakers, stealing kidneys, taking unnecessary medicines and conducting tests indiscriminately as medical mafia/drug mafia, we have fought against them,” the statement added.