Let’s not mix up health dangers with sedition Premium Read Full Story The Indian Medical Association (IMA) did itself no credit by asking for Patanjali promoter Baba Ramdev to be charged with “sedition", as it did this week in a letter addressed to the Prime Minister. This is an anachronism of a ‘crime’ that should have been dropped from our law books right after independence. The IMA is a representative body of doctors who practise what is popularly known as allopathy, a system of medicine that insists on clinical evidence of the safety and efficacy of treatment (and is thus anything but outdated). While the IMA’s contention of a “clear-cut case" of India’s top purveyor of ayurvedic remedies inciting an overthrow of state authority is easy to dismiss, what has got it up in arms does deserve a hearing. The source of its ire is the damage that Ramdev allegedly inflicted on the reputation of allopaths with his public dismissal of their ability to treat covid. As exhibits, the IMA has offered two video clips in which the businessman is seen claiming that 10,000 doctors had lost their lives despite taking both their vaccine doses and allopathic medicine had led to lakhs of deaths. If authentic, these claims are both false and outrageous. They cannot pass for freedom of speech. Given Ramdev’s influence over our multitudes, not to speak of the Centre’s approval some of his firm’s products are seen to enjoy, they could worsen the covid pandemic.