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Baba Ramdev has been probably most
successful of God men of recent times. He claims to have a
following of over a billion people. There are an infinite number
of people claiming that his yoga therapy and medicines work
wonders for their health. Baba in a short span of time has built a
multi million empire, his Trust is owning series of Ashrams,
ayurvedic drug factories, yoga training centers and many such
things, in India and abroad. Overall the medicines
prescribed-marketed by him are selling like hot cakes. He himself
adorns the divine status and his followers also regard him so, a
saint, above the worldly matters. His saffron robes are a symbol
of renunciation as such. All this is remarkable, good of both the
Worlds, as he is not only wearing divine halo but is also
presiding over the empire running into hundreds of crores of
rupees built in last decade or so and now entering politics too.
In our country where currently rational thought and scientific
thinking has been pushed to the back foot, the claims that his
methods are scientific go unchallenged by and large. As per him he
can cure Cancer, AIDS and what have you. He also states that
homosexuality is a disease, something for which he has a yogic
cure. Earlier he had a spat with Brinda Karat, on the issue of
contents of the medicines, powder of animal bones in the samples
from his factories and on the issue of wages for the workers. Baba
claiming to base his Yoga on scientific ground angrily dismissed
the issues raised by Brinda Karat, and one does not know what
happened to the wage issue of the workers of his factory.
There are not many who can dare to raise legitimate question in
the public domain about what is science? What is the method of
science and whether mere reading and following of scriptures can
be called as scientific? The issues related to the role of double
blind trials, biochemical analysis, pharmaceutical composition and
their side effects cannot be raised, as in doing so one can be
easily labeled as anti Hindu-Anti religious deviant. The garb of
Holy clothes is the best defense against all the legitimate
questions. So what is projected to be working successfully can
also be asserted to be a scientific practice. One would expect
that the tall claims like curing cancer and AIDS, need to be
questioned as many may get misled and loose the precious time
which a medical intervention can play in a positive way.
One concedes that there must be some benefits due to things
practiced by Baba and the likes of him, but these need to be
regulated and peer reviewed to avoid their misuse in the society
at large. Science is not a monopoly of anybody and peer review and
evaluation is the best regulator for decisions about
medications-practices for society. This is indispensable to avoid
the harm, in short term or long term sense. Divinity should not be
permitted to protect the real social issues involved.
Lately Baba has been in the news not for divine or yogic reasons,
but for the profane issues related to corruption, and his forming
a political party which will fight the elections. While the
crusade against corruption is welcome as such, one observes that
his sayings about corruption are restricted to one political
party. This is a partisan view, an attempt to hide the corrupt
practices of other political parties and other actors involved in
the issue of corruption. He is scathing against Congress on the
issue of corruption and is silent about BJP’s corruption. He is
vocal about something and quiet about the corruption of rich who
are equal partners in this social evil. This may indicate that the
saffron clothes are being used for the goals of helping the
communal party and the rich.
As such corruption has more to do with unbridled power, absence of
transparency and lack of social audit on the economic transactions
and policies. To link it with few political actors is an attempt
to hide those who give the bribes to get their work done. A
principled stand will also be to ensure that all the donations
coming to the Ahsrams of Baba and his types belong to the category
of what is ‘accounted money’! Hope Baba has already taken care of
this point before starting his campaign against corruption.
Generally the ‘divine’ people have to be standing for peace and
harmony. One recalls that in the wake of 26/11 Mumbai terror
attack, Baba had exhorted Indian Government to attack Pakistan,
and that he will fund the war against Pakistan. One shudders to
think of war mongers and that too with those having divine claims
leading our political affairs. The current times have been the one
where the politics has been wearing the clothes of religious
identity. Baba is going one step ahead. He is trying to ride on
two horses, the one of spirituality-religion and the other of
entrepreneur-politician, at the same time. His association with
those who have done politics by abusing religious identity, the
communalists, is very clear. That may be the reason as to why he
is creating hysteria around corruption by one political party
rather than against corruption as a phenomenon related to our
socio-political structure.
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