Sorry, But Not Sorry! Baba Ramdev’s Statements Amount To Criminal Offence
Published on: 31 May 2021, 02:00 pm
The recent controversial statements made by yoga tycoon and businessman Ramdev dismissing allopathy and COVID-19, AVANI BANSAL writes that his apology backtracking from his claims is not sufficient. She lays out the various legal provisions under which his statements are actionable as criminal offences, and makes the case for him to be prosecuted.
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IS it sufficient to commit a crime and get away by saying – sorry? No country's criminal jurisprudence allows this. Yet, the Union Health and Family Welfare Minister, Dr. Harsh Vardhan, found it appropriate to merely write a letter to Ramdev in response to his statements calling allopathy stupid and claiming that lakhs of people have died due to allopathic medicines. The videos of his statements are available on the internet.
Yet, the health minister writes in his letter that it is 'unfortunate' that a person of Ramdev's stature does not know of the benefits and achievements of modern medical science and allopathy. What is surprising is that the health minister does not find it 'illegal' alongside 'unfortunate', and stops short of asking Ramdev to withdraw his statements, instead of initiating appropriate legal action against him.