Magic Versus Science

As everyone now knows, India has been going through something of a torrid time in the second phase of the Covid-19 pandemic (although death rates are dropping again now).....

Mr Sukhbir Singh Jaunapuria .... A Muddy Covid Defence Advocate

 

... this after they had originally proudly claimed to be the vaccine supplier to the world. 

Of course as we have seen already in a number of countries, the problem with having a highly nationalistic government, based very heavily on the national majority religion, is that you become something of a hostage to religious nonsense, instead of the science. This is usually because all the religious nutters in your political support will claim divine reasons for the country's progress, or most recently, for avoiding the worst of the Covid-19 first wave.

Indian ministers such as Satyapal Singh (Minister for higher education), who has a postgraduate degree in chemistry from Delhi University, and is a self professed "man of science" who said in 2018, and I quote: "Darwin’s theory is scientifically wrong. It needs to change in the school and college curriculum. Since man is seen on Earth, he has always been a man. Nobody, including our ancestors, in written or oral, said they ever saw an ape turning into a human being.” .... super!

Or then there's Shripad Naik, India’s minister for alternative medicine, who has been promoting cows urine as the cure for cancer as well as (by other Hindu activists), being the cure or treatment for many illnesses, including diabetes, epilepsy, and AIDS. He also claimed, falsely that that Prince Charles of Britain used Ayurveda to cure his Covid-19, and the British government had to swiftly issue a statement rejecting his claim.

So perhaps its not really a surprise when these men (its always men in India), either upset your public image, or come a public cropper .... take for example Mr Sukhbir Singh Jaunapuria, an MP from the northern state of Rajasthan, who filmed himself sitting in mud puddle and blowing a conch, as well as  eating 'desi' - local indigenous foods .... this he claimed would protect him and anyone who followed his lead, from getting Covid-19. In his video he comments 'Go out, get wet in the rain, sit in the dirt, work on the farm, blow a conch … and eat "desi" things. One gains immunity from doing these things,'

Needless to say he was proved very wrong when he (along with a number of other Indian MP's of a similar mindset), came down with Covid-19. But of course he was not alone in these ideas, another Indian lawmaker, Suman Haripriya, from the state of Assam, publicly touted the theory that cow urine and cow dung could be used to sterilise areas infected by Covid-19 (the cow being holy, so obviously its dung and urine is sterile), while Yogi Adityanath, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, suggested that yoga was also a cure for Covid-19.

Just for context ... India has officially recorded more than 414,000 Covid-19 deaths so far ... but quelle surprise ....  The excess deaths during the coronavirus epidemic in India is actually more than four million, a new study by the US-based Centre for Global Development has found.

Baba And Modi - Someone Supping With The Devil?

It hardly helps when popular yoga guru, Baba Ramdev (who shot to fame in India because of his televised yoga classes, then building a business empire Patanjali Ayurveda that now sells herbal medicines and almost everything else, from flour, jeans, soaps, oils, biscuits and even cow urine), said that modern western medicines didn't work, and that tens of thousands died of Covid-19 even after taking them. He also mocked Covid patients for trying to get oxygen cylinders when as he put it "God has given us free oxygen, why don't we breathe that? How can there be a shortage when God has filled the atmosphere with oxygen? Fools are looking for oxygen cylinders. Just breathe the free oxygen. Why are you complaining about shortage of oxygen and beds and crematoriums?" 

He withdrew the video comments, but only after India's Health Minister Harsh Vardhan issued a statement, asking the guru to withdraw his remarks. "Allopathy [modern medicine] and the doctors attached to it have given new lives to millions of people. It's very unfortunate for you to say that people died from consuming allopathic medicines. We should not forget that this battle can only be won through united efforts. In this war, our doctors, nurses and other health workers are risking their lives to save people's lives. Their dedication towards serving mankind in this crisis is unparalleled and exemplary." 

But he was hardly apologetic, and later issued another public letter asking the Indian Medical Association why modern medicine had no cure for 25 diseases, including diabetes and hypertension. In June last year Patanjali Ayurveda launched Coronil - a combination of herbs used in traditional Indian medicine - and claimed that it could cure Covid-19 ...

Coronil Not A Cure .....

 ... but was forced to advertise it as an 'immunity booster'. But his supporters then claimed that the World Health Organisation had approved it as a cure for Covid-19, forcing a public denial from the WHO. But once you unleash this madness, then it spreads far and wide, and Coronil was also found to be selling in some Asian stores in the UK, which led to the UK drug regulator saying no such drug was authorised for sale.

Baba Ramdev has openly supported both the BJP and Prime Minister Mr Modi, and even campaigned for the BJP party .... you reap what you sew when you start courting the forces of magic and superstition to help your political party.