The Indian Medical Association recommended that the Centre take action against yoga guru Ramdev over his remarks on western medicine on Saturday.

The medical organisation was responding to Ramdev’s assertion that allopathy is a “stupid science.” He also said that coronavirus treatments authorised by the Drugs Controller General of India, such as remdesivir and favipiravir, had failed. “Lakhs of patients have died because of allopathic medicines rather than a shortage of oxygen,” he claimed.

The top medical body demanded that the Centre either charge Ramdev with a crime under the Epidemic Diseases Act or acknowledge his allegations and “dissolve” modern medical facilities. It went on to say that his remarks questioned the credibility of India’s Drug Controller General and Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan.

“Remdesivir and Favipiravir are approved by CDSCO (Central Drug Standard Control Organisation) and were notified for use for the Covid patients by the central government in June-July, 2020,” the IMA said. “The said notification was made by the Centre under section 2A of the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897.”

According to the IMA, Ramdev “deserves to be punished” under the Epidemic Disease Act for “disobeying and bringing danger to the lives of many” by forcing them not to take allopathy medications.

According to the Indian Medical Association, 1,200 western medicine doctors have died in India’s extraordinary crisis. “In a war-like atmosphere, it has become a passion for people with a cynical opportunistic mentality to smash medical warriors in the back to raise their unscrupulous, unprincipled, deceitful, and unpatriotic business fortunes,” the report said.

According to the organisation, Ramdev has previously referred to doctors as “murderers” in the presence of the health minister. It said, “It is a well-known fact that Yogi Guru ji and his associate Shri Balkrishna have been receiving modern medical allopathy care when and when they become sick.” “Now, in order to deceive the general public, he [Ramdev] is making all kinds of misleading and unfounded allegations in order to market his illicit and unapproved drugs.”

If the health minister does not take suo moto action against Ramdev, the Indian Medical Association has threatened to take legal action. The association said, “A country’s healthcare should be managed by a physician in a professional manner.” “It’s not competent to treat unscientific illiteracy with deaf ears and blind eyes.”

India is battling a vicious second outbreak of the pandemic, which has wreaked havoc on the country’s health system. Several states are experiencing severe oxygen and vaccination shortages.

Earlier this year, Ramdev and his company Patanjali Ayurved sparked another uproar by marketing a medication called Coronil, which the company said was the “first evidence-based medicine” for coronavirus.

The case, where Ramdev published a research paper on Coronil, was attended by Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan. The Indian Medical Association had raised serious concerns about the Centre’s support for the “unscientific medication.”