Showdown looms for yoga guru over ads claiming cures

Ayurvedic products tycoon in cross hairs of India’s top court for product claims

- Rohini Mohan

Yoga guru and ayurvedic products tycoon Baba Ramdev is in the cross hairs of India's top court over false medical advertisements claiming his products can cure dozens of diseases.

The Supreme Court initiated contempt of court proceedings against Mr Ramdev on Feb 27 after he failed to keep to a promise made in 2023 that the ads would stop.

The Supreme Court has been hearing a petition filed by the Indian Medical Association (IMA), which represents doctors in the country, since November 2023.

The IMA alleges that Mr Ramdev's billion-dollar company Patanjali Ayurved engaged in a smear campaign against modern medicine and claimed to cure ailments.

Such advertising is banned under Indian law.

The IMA petition refers to at least 30 misleading advertisements published by Patanjali.

One such advertisement in the spotlight is for Patanjali's product Coronil, promoted as a cure for Covid-19 at the height of the pandemic. In the advertisement, Mr Ramdev is featured without a mask.

A Supreme Court bench of two judges reprimanded the company's founders, Mr Balkrishna Acharya and Mr Ramdev, for making "dangerous" false claims, and promoting products that were under scrutiny even as the case was ongoing.

The bearded, bare-chested and saffron dhoti-clad Ramdev is a popular yoga teacher who runs his own TV channel.

In 2006, he founded Patanjali, a multinational company that makes food, cosmetics, home care and herbal products in Haridwar, in the northern state of Uttarakhand.

The company makes everything from honey and medicines to soap and flour. It now has 47,000 stores all over India, and also sells in the US, UK, Singapore, United Arab Emirates and Canada.

Patanjali's advertising suggests that the company espouses traditional Indian values and promotes ancient recipes over modern medicines.