NEW DELHI: The battle between Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss and controversial yoga guru Baba Ramdev is hotting up.
In response to the government’s notice, Ramdev held a press conference in the capital and urged the minister to attend one of his yoga camps and verify his claims.
“He can even send a team of doctors from the AIIMS to observe our system,” he said. “I will be happy to help them understand the science behind it.”
Taking a pot-shot at the minister, Ramdev said, “I am not in the habit of courting controversy. I am not making any false claim. Pranayam and yoga have been known to cure many patients suffering from cancer. The evidence is in patients who got cured of blood cancer, pituitary gland cancer, and even brain tumour. I have never claimed it will cure AIDS, but it helps HIV patients.”
Anbumani, who has run anti-smoking and anti-cola campaigns like Ramdev, is at loggerheads with the guru on his claim that yoga can cure deadly diseases, saying the claim is not backed by proof. Ramdev told reporters, “Ramadoss should run his ministry like a health ministry is expected to function and not like a machinery to promote allopathic medicine. Yoga and ayurveda are sciences, which have been in existence for a long time. I am not making them up.”
