BHOPAL: Congress’s Rajya Sabha member and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh submitted a complaint accusing Yoga Guru Ramdev of inciting religious sentiments among people to increase sale of his product.
In a complaint submitted at the TT Nagar police station in Bhopal on Tuesday, he also accused the Yoga Guru of spreading hatred, animosity and hostility among people on communal lines through the video released on his ‘X’ account on April 3.
Singh further demanded that Ramdev be booked by the police for outraging religious feelings and promoting enmity among groups on the basis of religion.
While addressing the Yoga Guru as ‘ Vyapari (businessman) Ramdev,’ in his complaint, Singh alleged that as the owner of Patanjali Ayurveda Limited company, with the aim of increasing his business, he released a video on April 3 on his official ‘X’ account.
“In the video while marketing Patanjali's Gulab Sharbat, he (Ramdev) said that there is a company in the name of Sharbat which gives Sharbat, but the money derived from its sale is used to build madrasas and mosques. Okay, this is their religion, but if you drink that Sharbat, then mosques and madrasas will be built and if you drink Patanjali's Gulab Sharbat, then Gurukul will be built, Acharya Kulam will be built, and Patanjali University Indian Education Board will move forward."
"That is why I say that there is something called Sharbat Jihad, just like Love Jihad. Vote Jihad is going on, Sharbat Jihad is also going on. This statement of Ramdev is hurtful to religious sentiments and is full of animosity.”
“It has an adverse effect on religious sentiments and amounts to a punishable offence under Section 196 (1) (a), 299 of the Indian Penal Code 2023 and various sections of the IT Act,” Singh submitted in his complaint.
Singh said that Ramdev has built an empire worth crores of rupees by taking the help of religion and nationalism to sell his products, whereas many of Patanjali's products have not met the set standards and have been banned by competent court.
"He didn’t keep himself away from taking advantage of the opportunity even in the Covid pandemic and tried to deceive the whole country by making false promises of making a vaccine for Corona, and later apologised after being reprimanded by the Supreme Court. But even today he is misleading the public by his actions and playing with their religious sentiments,” Singh added.
According to Singh, the entire country knows the 'Hamdard' company, which businessman Ramdev has mentioned without naming it, has been trading Ayurvedic and Unani medicines in our country for about 100 years.
Businessman Ramdev's opposition to "Rooh Afza" syrup just because the owner of the company is a Muslim, amounts to hate speech and calling the sale of the said syrup "Sharbat Jihad" is unconstitutional.
Later talking to journalists, the septuagenarian Congress MP said, “I’ll wait for a week, if the FIR isn’t registered by Bhopal Police by then, I’ll move to the Court in the matter.”
While interacting with journalists further, the former MP CM also questioned why vast tract of land allotted to Patanjali Group in MP for varied business purposes, including Yoga, organic fertilizers, organic cotton production and food processing in Raisen, Narsinghpur, Jhabua, Satna, Sagar, Shivpuri, Guna and other districts was lying unutilized.
“The MP government cancelled land allotment to Infosys as the allotted land wasn’t being utilised by the IT major, so why is similar action not being initiated against him (Ramdev) and his business group?”
Reacting to Singh’s complaint against the Yoga Guru, Madhya Pradesh’s cabinet minister Vishwas Sarang addressed the former MP CM as ‘Diggy Miyan.’
“Diggy Miyan has an objection to saffron clothes worn by Baba Ramdev and not actually Baba Ramdev. He is slagging Baba Ramdev, but has taken pride in the past while glorifying controversial and extremist Islamic preacher Zakir Naik," he said
"Baba Ramdev, who has promoted Yoga across the world for healthy living, is seen by him (Singh) as a villain. Are foreign forces sponsoring him (Singh), does he derive pleasure in speaking against Sanatan Dharma, how far will he take his politics of minority appeasement?," he added.