NEW DELHI: In a significant move, the PMO has directed the Ayush ministry to take “appropriate action” on a complaint against Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali Ayurved for repeated violations of an Act that deals with misleading advertisements of Ayush products.
Following the PMO directive to the Ayush ministry on January 24, the ministry has further asked the Uttarakhand Ayush department to “take appropriate action” on the matter that has been pending since February 2022.
Both the Ayush Ministry and the Uttarakhand State Licensing Authority (SLA) had been dragging their feet over Patanjali Ayurved’s misleading advertisements of its drugs for diabetes, obesity, thyroid and heart diseases, despite several RTIs on the matter.
In a letter to the Director, Ayurvedic and Unani Services, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, the Ayush ministry said that “since the subject matter pertains to continuous violations of the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954, by Divya Pharmacy, it comes under the jurisdiction of the State Licensing Authority, Uttarakhand.”
“Therefore, it is requested to examine the matter and take the necessary action as deemed appropriate and inform your response to the applicant under intimation to this ministry,” the February 2 letter said.
The directions to the Uttarakhand SLA came after RTI activist Dr K V Babu complained to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on January 15 regarding repeated contravention of the DMR (OA) Act, 1954 by Patanjali Ayurved.
“I am thankful to the PMO for the prompt intervention and hope this will end the illegal advertisements by Patanjali Ayurved,” Babu said.
Babu told this paper that his complaints have been pending with the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI), Union Ayush Ministry and SLA of Uttarakhand since February 2022.
“The Ayush Ministry and SLA have been dragging the issue based on an unrelated Rule 170 of the Cosmetic Act and a Madras High Court judgement of 2020. The SLA is not taking any action even after repeated communications and the numerous contravention of the Magic Remedies Act by Patanjali Ayurveda,” said Babu, adding that the Ayush ministry has written at least four times to the Uttarakhand SLA for action against Patanjali, but nothing was done.
Babu had also flagged the issue with Union Ayush Minister Sarbannanda Sonowal on various occasions.
Two parliamentarians – Dr V Sivadasan and Karti P Chidambaram – had also raised the matter last year, and the Ayush minister had assured them and even directed the Uttarakhand government to take action against Patanjali Ayurved for its misleading advertisements.
In a written answer on March 28, last year, Sonowal said that in 2022, the Ayush ministry had forwarded advertisements of Divya Madhugrit (15 violations), Divya Lipidom (7 violations), Divya Eyegrit Gold (10 violations) and Divya BPgrit (18 violations) to Ayurveda and Unani Services, Uttarakhand to examine the matter for withdrawal of advertisements.
Babu also wrote to the Ayush ministry that Patanjali had published misleading ads in two broadly circulated regional newspapers.
The DMR (OA) 1954 prohibits the advertisement of certain drugs to treat certain diseases and disorders. It states that “no person shall take any part in the publication of any advertisement referring to any drug in terms which suggest or are calculated to lead to the use of that drug for the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment or prevention of any diseases, disorder or condition.”