HARIDWAR: In the backdrop of controversy over his comments on the adverse role of allopathic drugs in the treatment of Covid-19, yoga guru Ramdev said during a yoga session at his Yog Gram centre in Haridwar that he has set a target of converting 1000 allopathic doctors to Ayurveda during a year’s time.
Addressing participants assembled from across the country to participate in a yoga camp with him, Ramdev said that several allopaths holding MBBS and MD degrees were also attending the yoga camp. “These are the doctors who have faced the side-effects of allopathic drugs and have now turned to yoga and Ayurveda. Some of them have taken voluntary retirement from their practice and decided to follow our path. In fact, I have decided that in the next one year, our target would be to convert over 1000 allopathic doctors to naturopathy,” he said. Taking a jibe at IMA president Dr JA Jayalal, he said that he is “not aiming at religious conversion of the doctors like the IMA head is doing but looking at a transformation of their beliefs.”
He further said, “It is not bad to support and protect one’s faith and religion. Christianity is backed by big world powers, Islam has the support of a large empire, drug industry is backed by big powers, but yoga, Ayurveda, naturopathy — who will support them? It is you, the people who have supported them, otherwise nobody was taking these ancient sciences seriously.”
He added that “if people give just 2% of their earnings as donation to propagate these therapies, a lot more can be achieved.”
A couple of days ago, while conducting a morning yoga session at the camp, the yoga guru had said that “parents who cannot keep their children healthy should be penalised and so should rulers who can’t keep the people of their country disease-free.”
