Puthiya Tamilagam party leader K Krishnasamy on Monday urged the government to set up a research institute to study the claims behind some forms of treatment in the Indian Systems of Medicine.
Krishnasamy said such a study would not only allow the Tamil Nadu government to patent the findings, it could popularise the use of the cures. Krishnasamy, a practicing doctor who holds MBBS and MD degrees, told the Assembly that the need to understand traditional systems of medicines such as Siddha, Ayurveda, Unani, etc, arose out of an alarming rise in the number of advertisements purporting cures. “A large number of people are falling prey to theses advertisements. In some medicines, there are substantial quantities of heavy metals and other harmful substances that could cause side effects,” he said.
However, Krishnasamy made it clear that he was not building a case for the allopathic system’s supremacy over the other forms of medicine. “No form of medicine is supreme. Each system is evolved out of a certain cultural and social context. So, each system may hold value in a certain set of circumstances. Only if we understand how a system works can we leverage it for the greater good,” Krishnasamy told the Assembly.