Political discussions are often discouraged in Indian medical institutions and conferences, despite their prevalence in healthcare professional WhatsApp groups. Questions linking health to politics are frequently ignored or silenced. The recent Supreme Court crackdown on Patanjali serves as a reminder that health is fundamentally a political issue.
Patanjali has leveraged political support and a lax regulatory environment to promote its products, making unsubstantiated claims without scientific evidence. Patanjali Research Institute was inaugurated with political patronage, and the then Union Health Minister endorsed Coronil, a pill falsely claimed to cure COVID-19. Despite lacking scientific evidence, Coronil’s license was changed to support the cure claim, a request made by the central government and granted by the Uttarakhand AYUSH licensing director.
Regulatory authorities in Nepal swiftly halted the distribution of Coronil kits, while the Haryana government announced plans to distribute 100,000 kits, half funded by taxpayers. The law explicitly prohibits false advertising of drugs, but authorities turned a blind eye, allowing Patanjali to profit from misleading claims.
Patanjali has targeted various diseases, including diabetes, hypertension, and cancer. The company’s website promotes a Cancer Care Support Program based on detoxification and unproven claims. Baba Ramdev has publicly asserted that allopathy cannot cure cancer, promoting cow urine extract and ayurvedic medicines instead.
As a result of these false claims, Patanjali’s revenue skyrocketed by 2.5 times from 2019 to 2023. However, this pseudoscientific approach has created a public health emergency by undermining trust in modern medicine, delaying diagnoses, and discontinuing proven treatments. The Patanjali fiasco highlights the failure of regulatory bodies, law enforcement, and the media to curb misinformation.
India’s poor drug regulation record has been criticized, leading to preventable deaths. Serious adverse events and deaths linked to pseudoscientific drugs should be audited and addressed. The Patanjali case demonstrates that health remains a political issue, yet it often lacks the seriousness it deserves in political commitments and public discourse.
