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IMA backs Ayurveda, seeks Sri Sri guidance

The IMA has also sent a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, demanding that Ramdev be booked immediately under sedition charges for his alleged misinformation campaign.

The Indian Medical Association (IMA), which has repeatedly debunked the theory of Ayurveda, has written to a spiritual and wellness guru for guidance.

In a letter to Sri Sri Ravi Shankar of the Bengaluru-based Art of Living, the IMA has said it would like to engage with the wellness guru for lessons on health and life.

The letter assumes tremendous significance, ostensibly because the Art of Living has its own ayurvedic product lines, tapping into the renewed faith in India’s ancient knowledge systems. The wellness guru’s discourses relate to urban stress and trauma. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar also propagates breathing techniques.

Indian Medical Association - IMA

The IMA has been at loggerheads with Baba Ramdev, a yoga guru, over his claims that allopathic hospitals often use ayurvedic medicines from the Patanjali.

But now, the IMA said it had planned a series of meetings of India’s top doctors with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar but the meetings got cancelled because of the raging pandemic.

“We are aware you stand for purity of Ayurveda. The Art of Living sessions blessed by you have been a source of inspiration for millions across the globe. Your spiritual teachings have awakened the goodness in man,” Dr JA Jayalal, national president of IMA, wrote in the letter, a copy of which is with this reporter.

The words “purity of Ayurveda” assumes special significance in India, where allopathic physicians are ranged against ayurvedic practitioners over the effectiveness of medicines used by the two sects.

The IMA chief is a professor and head of the department of surgery, Government Kanyakumari Medical College Hospital in Tamil Nadu.

The letter gives a clear hint about IMA’s preference of what it calls “Ayurveda”.

“Doctors across the country have been in the forefront of fighting the pandemic. More than 1400 doctors have sacrificed their lives in the service of the nation in this Corona war.

“Unfortunately, doctors have to fight against violence, pseudo science and vaccination tirade. IMA has called for a nationwide protest in this regard, for invoking and representing the collective consciousness of our fraternity,” Dr Jayalal further wrote in the letter, dated June 14, 2021.

The tussle between IMA and Baba Ramdev is still triggering breaking headlines. Recently, the IMA challenged Ramdev for an open debate on claims of allopathic hospitals using Patanjali medicines for treatment.

This comes in the backdrop of the apex medical body filing a police complaint against Ramdev over his “dishonest and wrongful representations” on allopathy and approved methods and drugs.

Delhi Police is conducting an enquiry on the basis of the complaint by IMA which said: “Swami Ramdev, in order to take advantage of the Covid situation, on a public platform in furtherance of his ulterior motives has put forth dishonest and wrongful representations with regard to allopathic medicines and other allied treatment techniques of modern medical science for the Covid-19 virus.”

Covid children

“In a video which has surfaced and is being shared widely throughout the social media, Swami Ramdev is seen willfully and deliberately spreading false, baseless and malicious information with regard to the treatment of various patients suffering from Covid-19 by established and approved treatment methods and drugs,” it said.

The IMA has also sent a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, demanding that Ramdev be booked immediately under sedition charges for his alleged misinformation campaign.