Issue 403 = 28-05-2021

38 28/05/2021 NEWS LITERATURE POLITICS FASHION ART & CULTURE KIDS RELIGION FILMS
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Covid 19 Management and Scientific Temper
(Samaj Weekly)- With the outbreak
of Covid 19, one of the earliest claims
for its treatment came from Baba
Ramdev. Baba Ramdev is the leading
Baba who is also close to the ruling dispensation.
He began becoming popular
with his Yoga exercises and later took
up the manufacture of medicines etc.
including cow products. He has come to
stand in the row of leading Corporate of
the country. He learned his craft of Yoga
from his Guru. His colleague Acharya
Balkishan is the one who is his partner
in the Patanjail enterprise, which has
become a leading drug manufacturer.
Not much is known about the formal
education of the duo.
Their launch of Coronil, as a cure of
Corona drew lot of attention. There was
the claim initially that it has got WHO
approval, later the claim was diluted to
say that it has been made as per WHO
guidelines. A study was cited as the
proof of efficacy of the Coronil. The
claim was made that within seven days
the disease will be cured. Later the fallacy
of the study which was presented
as the basis of proving efficacy of
Coronil was demonstrated. Interestingly
two central minsters were present at the
launch.
Last one year has seen so many
claims coming up for treatment of the
dreaded pandemic. The Ayush ministry
advised the application of sesame
oil/coconut oil/cow ghee on the nostrils.
Centre tried to defame
farmers with motivated
chargesheet, alleges
AKALI DAL
Some came up with the idea of steam
inhalation. Malegaon blast accused,
Bhopal BJP MP, Pragya Singh Thakur
claimed that consumption of Cow urine
is protecting her from Corona. BJP,
Madhya Pradesh Culture Minister Usha
Thakur claimed that performing of Fire
ritual; Havan; will protect us from the
disease.
Swami Chakrapani Maharaj organized
a Gomutra party for popularising
Cow-urine drinking and for applying
cow dung on the body. Similar practice
is being done by a group of Sadhus in
Gujarat. The peak of this was the statement
from the Chief Minister of
Uttrakhand who invited people for taking
bath in Mahakumbh with the plea
that divine powers of the river will protect
us from the calamity. The results
were right there to see as number of sadhus
lost their lives right during the
kumbh and later many sadhus carried
the disease to their respective places.
The overarching ideology behind
this of course filtered down from the
Prime minster himself, who first gave
the call of banging pots and pans for
five minutes at 5 PM and in April he
asked for burning candles and flashing
lights for 9 Minutes at Nine PM.
In a unique way another BJP worthy
one Sankeshwar in a recent press meet
stated that administration of lime juice
through nostrils increases oxygen levels
by 80%. This as per him was based on
Ram Puniyani
observation of nearly 200 friends and
relatives.
The whole trend has been to make
statements and adopt politics, which do
not have any scientific base. The science
has tried to evolve method to
search for truth through the elaborate
methods. What we saw all through this
period has been the statements and
actions which are based on faith or common
sense. Cow which is a political
symbol for the ruling dispensation has
been employed extensively for treatment,
its urine; its dung have been the
major advices. The veterinary science
will tell us that Urine/dung is the waste
products of the body and there is no evidence
of any benefit of these to human
body.
The faith that 33 Crore Gods reside
in her body is a matter of faith, which is
being popularized and being forced on
the policies of this ruling dispensation.
The fire ritual of Yagna and ablation
(Ahuti) is again being proffered out of
the hat. The volunteers of the BJP s parent
organization are doing extensive
propagation of the methods of doing
Havan at places.
Along with this Baba Ramdev, who
is among the major Godmen of last two
decades, went on to say that Allopathic
system of medicine is stupid and bankrupt
science. In response the Indian
Medical Association lodged protest. The
health Minster, wrote to Ramdev who in
turn has withdrawn his statement. This
is the same Ramdev who was in ICU
after his few days of fasting. This is
same Ramdev, whose partner Balkishan
was recently admitted to some allopathic
hospital.
The rise of such faith based irrational
statements and policies during last few
decades are running parallel to the rise
of sectarian politics, Hindutva. As such
the religious nationalism wants to harp
on the pre democratic values of caste
and gender hierarchy. The major step in
dawn of democratic society was the
struggle for reason to come up against
the prevalent blind beliefs, blind faith.
With democratization of Western societies
the faith/blind faith, such irrational,
retrograde practices are seen less
often there, if at all.
Here the rise of national movement,
the rise of social reform among women
and dalits also saw the firming up of the
scientific thinking. While the freedom
movement ran parallel to introduction
of rational though in society, those
believing in religious nationalism were
not only opposed to social reforms, anti
colonial struggle but also were against
the scientific thinking. They harped on
faith as it gives legitimacy to inequality
in society.
Our Constitution wants the state to
promote scientific temper as a matter of
policy. As we have seen with the rise of
divisive nationalism we have seen an
all-out attack on rational thinking. We
saw the murders of Dr. Dabholkar, Com
Pansare, M. M. Kalburgi and Gauri
Lankesh. The tragedy of pandemic has
seen the revival of blind faith as the ruling
dispensation s whole ideology is
founded on faith/blind faith. This is an
obstacle to efficiently dealing with the
pandemic. While the likes of Ramdev
are on the top of pyramid of faith based
knowledge, there are hoards of others
promoting these things all around. We
do need to promote scientific temper
and the spectacles of banging pans or
lighting lamps are not going to solve the
tragic situation in which we are writhing
at present.
Chandigarh : The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on
Thursday condemned the Central government for trying to
defame the farmers’ agitation as well as suppress it by allegedly
filing a politically motivated chargesheet accusing the farmers
of conspiring to turn the Red Fort into a protest site on
January 26 this year.
In a statement here, former minister Daljit Singh Cheema
said it was shocking that Delhi Police had filed a chargesheet
accusing the farmers of trying to capture the Red Fort on
January 26 with the aim of turning it into a protest site.
He said this was furthest from the truth. "It is a matter of
record that the entire established leadership of the Kisan
Andolan as well as thousands of protesters took a predetermined
route as finalised after talks with Delhi Police. Only a
small section of people reached the Red Fort."
Cheema said it was apparent that Delhi Police had not done
a professional investigation into the entire case.
"The factual position on the ground has not been taken into
consideration while framing the chargesheet. In fact, it seems
to be motivated by politics."
The SAD leader asked the Central government to take stock
of the situation immediately and take corrective measures to
ensure no farmer was victimised due to the partisan
chargesheet filed by the police.