On television, we’ve seen Baba Ramdev contort, stretch, do headstands, and walk on his hands. We’ve seen him compete in push-up contests with students, and close his eyes dramatically when shown a photograph of a Bollywood actress wearing a bikini.
And we’ve seen all this on India’s leading news channels, like India TV, Zee News, ABP, Aaj Tak, News18 India, Republic, India TV and TV9. They’re also platforms for Ramdev to dismiss allopathy and complain about “medical tourism” – not only through his statements but through a plethora of ads from his company, Patanjali Ayurved.
Even the Supreme Court seems to have noticed. Last week, it directed Patanjali to immediately stop its “false and misleading advertisements”. The court threatened to impose costs of Rs 1 crore for every false claim made in Patanjali’s ads.
But it isn’t that simple. Patanjali is one of the biggest advertisers on TV. A report by Tam Media Research in August this year found that it’s the third highest advertiser in TV news ads. These ads – for toothpaste, ghee, Ramdev’s infamous “Covid cure” – are splattered across every mainstream news channel.
The product criticised the most for “misleading” claims is Coronil, introduced in the middle of the Covid pandemic as the “first evidence-based medicine for Covid-19” that has a “100 percent recovery rate”. It was “certified” by India’s AYUSH ministry in 2021.
Then there’s Patanjali’s Divya Eyegrit Gold 20N, a herbal tablet that claims to be “useful in eye weakness, eye inflammation, and vision related problems”. Another product, Yogendra Ras, claims to treat “various strokes, epilepsy, heart ailments, timidity and physic troubles” as well as “paralysis, epilepsy, and mental disorders”. Patanjali claims: “When the normal medicines fail, this is a sure-shot treatment.”
Patanjali’s Kesh Kanti Natural Hair Cleanser and Oil claimed other brands contain mineral oils that are “carcinogenic”. The Advertising Standards Council of India said this was “false and misleading by ambiguity and by gross exaggeration”. It also ruled that Patanjali’s ads “unfairly denigrates” other products.
Rajat Sharma’s support
Given the dependence news channels have on Patanjali’s ads, it’s worth scrutinising how they reported on the Supreme Court’s directions.
On India TV, Rajat Sharma discussed the issue in great detail on primetime on November 22, though he didn’t specifically criticise the Supreme Court. As he delivered his monologue, Patanjali ads flashed at the bottom of the screen.
Sharma said he’s “known Swami Ramdev for many years”.
“The show he started on India TV during Covid has benefited crores of people,” he said. “Today too, there are crores who watch his show everyday. I too have met many patients who have been cured through Swami Ramdev’s yoga and medicines. I am not saying every patient gets cured completely, but there are lakhs of people who have been able to stop having diabetes and thyroid medicines thanks to Ramdev.”
He offered no scientific backing for these claims.
“Ramdev is right in saying that his affordable treatments are affecting the business of pharma companies,” Sharma continued. “Defaming ayurveda as well as Ramdev just to earn money and run a business will benefit no one. Ramdev should be praised for the work he has done for the advancement of yoga and ayurveda, scientific research, and getting people affordable treatment.”
Newslaundry has previously reported on Sharma’s close ties to Ramdev. In 2019, Patanjali acquired a bankrupt food company and installed Sharma as an independent director. Ramdev also has a weekly show on India TV, where anchors focus on doing yoga rather than asking questions.
On NDTV, anchor Sushil Bahuguna discussed the Supreme Court’s comments for a couple of minutes a day after the order. The channel also aired part of Ramdev’s press conference on the order, where he’d alleged a “gang of doctors” were running propaganda against Patanjali, and that he was ready for the “death penalty” if his company was found spreading lies.
“Insulting someone else’s products to sell your own can prove to be expensive,” Bahuguna said, “which is what seems to be happening to Patanjali as well.”
News18 India, Aaj Tak, Republic and Times Now did not report on the Supreme Court’s order at all, apart from the day’s headlines and a few minutes devoted to Ramdev’s press conference.
Of course, even as Aman Chopra on News18 India discussed Uttar Pradesh’s halal ban and whether Rahul Gandhi was a panauti for Congress that day, a Patanjali ad popped up at the bottom of the screen.
Always space for Ramdev
But “misleading” ads aside, Ramdev often proposes ludicrous theories – and gets plenty of screentime and column space on what he says.
For example, in May 2021, during the Covid pandemic, he claimed 10,000 doctors in India died even though they got two doses of the Covid vaccine. In the same month, he described allopathy as a “stupid science” and said “lakhs of patients have died after taking allopathic medicines”. He also blamed Covid patients for crying for oxygen cylinders instead of using their lungs to breathe oxygen from the air.
After angering the Indian Medical Association with his irresponsible nonsense, Ramdev appeared on an Aaj Tak debate alongside the association’s officebearers. The debate itself was sponsored by Patanjali’s Coronil, so he sat surrounded by its packages. The IMA objected, with Dr Rajan Sharma, its former president, stating at the outset that he had a problem with the show being sponsored by Patanjali.
Ramdev spoke for at least 20 minutes in the 40-minute debate, claiming he had “permanent solutions” to medical issues like asthma, diabetes, hypertension and arthritis, asking the doctors on the panel whether they had such treatments too. Anchor Anjana Om Kashyap nodded along as he claimed these “cures”.
The doctors struggled to get a word in. When one panellist said there was no point in speaking with Patanjali’s ads for “desi ghee” appearing during the debate, Ramdev said, “What problem do you have with desi ghee? If you don’t like cow ghee, eat buffalo ghee.”
Far from asking tough questions of Ramdev, anchor Kashyap put the burden of proof on the doctors, asking whether the “anger” against Ramdev was justified. She worried about the “overprescription of medicals” and “misuse of steroids”, asking why the doctors weren’t concerned about that.
Similar scenes played out when Ramdev appeared on ABP News that May in connection with the “10,000 doctors” claim. He folded his hands and challenged anchor Romana Isar Khan to find “anything sinful” he’d done from his childhood to present-day. Khan folded her hands in return and said everyone “had a lot of respect for him, which he knows very well”.
Khan did say Ramdev’s remarks were disrespectful towards the doctors who had died. But the impact was lost as an ad for Patanjali’s ghee, replete with a photo of Ramdev, appeared at the bottom of the screen.
Then in December 2022, Ramdev appeared on TV9 Bharatvarsh. He said he wasn’t just a yoga ambassador but also a health ambassador, so anchor Nishant Chaturvedi turned to the live audience to ask if they agreed. They cheered so Chaturvedi declared that the whole world thought so too.
In all fairness, Chaturvedi did ask Ramdev a serious question or two about his allegations against allopathy. Yet he clarified that he was asking such questions “apologetically and respectfully”. Why? Who knows. The audience was then treated to a seven-minute session of Ramdev doing yoga while Chaturvedi urged them to clap.
And last December, Ramdev appeared on Amish Devgan’s show on News18 India, where he, among other things, used the term “medical terrorism” while talking about narratives being set in the nation by “so-called intellectuals and intellectual terrorists”. Unsurprisingly, Devgan skipped tough questions to focus on Rahul Gandhi and “love jihad”. He also permitted audience members to ask Ramdev why boys named “Armaan” were trying to befriend girls by pretending their names were “Aman”.
Devgan also took a moment to praise Ramdev to the audience, saying he “worked so hard” and “started from scratch” to get where he is today.
But this pattern of programming is likely to continue, given that Patanjali is one of the biggest spenders on news ads. (You know who doesn’t take ads? Newslaundry, so subscribe now.) Time will tell whether the Supreme Court’s ruling will reflect on news channels’ approach to Ramdev as panellist – let alone as an advertiser.
Newslaundry is a reader-supported, ad-free, independent news outlet based out of New Delhi. Support their journalism, here.
