A point upfront – Just in case you have resolved to use only Allopathic medicines and nothing else, or just to oppose Ayurveda for opposition sake, or if you are in anger having decided that your granny died having Ginger Kashaya (Concoction) – stop reading this piece – this caution is purely out of concern for blowing money on BP pills etc.

When Corona Pandemic is widespread, when there is absolutely no clue on the medication to be prescribed and resorting to some medication left, right and centre, there was a Doctor of Ayurvedic medicine who announced availability of a treatment. He offered to give it totally free, allowed Government to manufacture and sell it too. Not only that, he even offered to assign the patent for the formula to the Government or make it public. This will allow various pharma companies to mass produce this medicine like the health supplement, Chyawanprash. As a last option, he even offered to provide it free.

It was not just offering all of the above; he even followed all official protocols of applicable for any trials. Yet no decision was taken. It is because of this, that public is angry with officials of Policy making Institutions and the Government.

Instead of debating about one person’s prescription, let us question as to why are they dismissive of Ayurveda and also why one set of rules for Ayurveda and another for Allopathy. Also, why the speed at which approvals are given to Allopathic medicines are not done for Ayurvedic ones.

Since the first person to declare availability of Ayurvedic medicine for treatment of COVID was from Dr Giridhar Kaje, let us start the discussion from this. It is not my objective to prove him as Lord Dhanvantri or anything.

Like everyone else, even Dr Kaje followed all rules laid out by Ministry of AYUSH. He also received approval in the first phase itself for conducting trials on 10 Symptomatic COVID positive patients. It was announced in the media by Hon’ble Minister of Health Sri Sriramalu and Smt Jayanthi of Ethics Committee that the trials have been successful. To be fair, Dr Kaje has not spoken a word. This is when the protests by Allopathy lobby began. Their war cry, can Ayurveda be concluded as effective based on successful trials on just 10 patients? Who said that Ayurveda can be a treatment at all? It is not scientific. Who will certify? Dr Giridhar Kaje is a liar, he has been lying. If he can cure, why are we required? You can go and treat yourself. These pricking words of taunt was a common place. From Medicos to non-Medicos, everyone started their opposition to Ayurveda and Dr Giridhar Kaje on Facebook and WhatsApp groups. The bigger question is none of them questioned abject failure of allopathy thus far.

Let us address this one by one

In the initial days of Corona Pandemic, Hydroxychloroquine Sulphate was announced as the standard course of treatment by the Government. Which in other words means, anyone in the country who is admitted for treatment of COVID, have to be treated with SEQs is the standing order. Is SEQs a preventive medicine at all? No. It is Rheumatoid Arthritis drug. During the initial days were any trials conducted to declare it as a medicine, and if so, on how many people administered with the medicine? No idea at all. Only thing known is that the reputed Medical journal The Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine and other such journals have reported that use of SEQs has increased incidents of massive heart attacks and in some cases resulting in deaths too. Subsequently, taking note of this, WHO officially deprecated use of Hydroxychloroquine Sulphate by any country, which has been implemented in our country too.

God forbid, if anything unfortunate had happened to even one of the 10 candidate of Ayurveda trials, probably it would have been hounded out of the country itself. Why is that no one is up in arms against Allopathy? It is justified by some that they are trials and in trials some deaths are inevitable and nothing can be done about it. Yet officials are sitting on clearances – they are ready to have ayurvedic concoctions at home, but will resist attempts to introduce ayurvedic remedies.

All the 10 treated by Dr Kaje have recovered. But there has been no grandiose announcements from him that it is panacea against COVID. He is seeking to conduct this trial on at least 1000 people. The approving authorities are nowhere to be found and just biding time, doing nothing.

If the concern and fear from the lobby is Allopathy getting subordinated to Ayurveda, for social good why can’t it be approved for people as immunity boosters (or preventive medicine) and not even as regular drug? The law doesn’t call for any trials for this. Administer this to contacts of COVID patients. There is a reason why it is not done. There is a commercial angle of allopathic drug manufacturers who depend on high priced drug sales which will be definitely hit by the free medicine offer by Ayurvedic doctors like Dr Kaje.

These are the kinds of roadblocks for Ayurveda. There is lot of buzz about Plasma Therapy. It is the process of extracting plasma from recovered patients and administering it to patients to increase their immunity. Citing approvals abroad, our authorities gave clearances to this therapy. Each country has its own food habits and different immunity levels. Without considering that aspect, it was approved in India and based on the recent survey reports, it was revealed that there has been no impact on COVID related mortality rates.

Why was it approved, when it was ineffective? Once again reason bandied about was that it was trials. When such approvals were demanded for Ayurveda, where attempt was being made to cure using tablets, it was dismissed as rantings of unscientific and foolish people.

We are already into eight months of this COVID Pandemic in the world. COVID patients are recovering and dying too. Why is it that no Government in the world, including ours is able to put their finger and claim any particular remedy or treatment protocol that is effective for COVID? It is because Allopathic practitioners themselves know that the allopathy medicine never cured completely. Does Allopathy concede that deaths due to use of Hydroxychloroquine is a failure? No. They would not even concede that their trials failed, nor would they abort trials. When their own backyard is stinking, they are branding Ayurveda as ineffective and MEDICAL MAFIA is resisting it with all its might.

Let us take the example of Karnataka. They formed COVID taskforces but surprisingly all of them are allopathic doctors. Not a single Ayurvedic or Homeopathic doctor is in the panel. It only means that fundamentally they resist any other course, except Allopathy.

Have the unworthy naysayers spreading canards against Dr Kaje and other Ayurvedic Vaidyas, claim Ayurveda is not effective and has Allopathy’s effectiveness been ever proven against efficacy of Ayurveda ever? Never. Another strange thing is the propaganda by this machinery if by chance a single person recovers using Plasma Therapy or by use of HCQ – there would be plethora of press conferences, but they burn inside when anyone proves that 10 have recovered using Ayurvedic Treatment. Even after ethics committee chief and ministers announce, if an Ayurvedic doctor utters a single word, they will be slapped with notices.

Another aspect to be discussed is the challenge to assertion of Dr Giridhara Kaje that he has been prescribing around 2 Crores of these tablets over the years to which their counter is how can you claim that this is discovered as a remedy to treat Corona? This has been my doubt too. The best counter argument is to use their argument itself. Whatever Allopathic drugs are used in treatment of COVID are not specifically discovered or invented to for it. Instead they are common remedies used in the past for treatment of Malaria, Rheumatoid Arthritis, fever or breathing difficulties. If they can use old drugs for treatment why not Ayurvedic medicines? The point here is not about old or new. But the fundamental aspect has been is your medicine effective against COVID or not. Officials are purposefully blind towards this point.

There are many smart champs out there who wonder why Dr Giridhar Kaje or other Ayurvedic Vaidyas seek only approvals from Government. It is because even sanitation department won’t pick the garbage without a nod from the politicians. Will the medicine be allowed to be sold under these circumstances? Policies of our Government, and laws are such that we may think India is heaven. But majority of the policies are not even implemented. However, if politicians make up their minds, they can propose a new policy at midnight and get it implemented by dawn. The very same people who seek to know preparation of Kashaya for cough are the ones who also resist Ayurveda and deny recognition to Ayurveda.

Still, those who claim, Ayurveda is not right, can kindly wait at your homes till you die. I know I am harsh. So be it.

Image Credits: Ayur Central