Ramdev at it again

TRUE to form, yoga guru Ramdev has got entangled in yet another controversy. His knack for making misleading claims has got him a well-deserved dressing-down from the Delhi High Court. Going overboard in a bid to hard-sell Patanjali’s ‘Gulab Sharbat’, he accused the makers of a popular rival drink of perpetrating ‘sharbat jihad’. He didn’t name Hamdard or its top brand Rooh Afza, but it was easy to put two and two together when he alleged that the money earned from that sharbat was being used to build madrasas and mosques.

The fact that several places with a Muslim/Mughal connection were renamed recently in Uttarakhand, the state where the Patanjali business empire has its headquarters, might have spurred Ramdev to pursue the tried-and-tested path of polarisation. Or maybe he was inspired by the “bulldozer justice” being meted out in UP and some other BJP-ruled states in violation of the Supreme Court’s guidelines on demolitions. Either way, the high court was quick to see through his divisive ploy. Justice Amit Bansal observed that Ramdev’s “indefensible” action had shocked the conscience of the court.

Ramdev’s warped business sense made him believe that he could poison Rooh Afza — which has always lived up to its “naturally refreshing” tagline — with the venom of communal hatred. After the court rap, he has promised to immediately remove videos and social media posts relating to his controversial remarks. However, it’s naïve to expect that he will mend his ways anytime soon. Barely eight months ago, the Supreme Court had closed contempt proceedings against him after accepting his undertaking to stop issuing misleading advertisements regarding the efficacy of Patanjali Ayurved products. The SC, however, had warned that it would “come down heavily” if there was any violation of its order. Ramdev might be lying low on that front, but he has laid bare his intolerance by targeting Hamdard, a trusted name that has stood the test of time for almost 120 years.