As the row between Yoga guru Baba Ramdev and the Indian Medical Association continues, Acharya Balakrishna, a key aide of Ramdev, opened a 'new front' in the stand-off on Monday.
Acharya Balkrishna, who is managing director of Patanjali Ayurved, on Monday alleged there was a "conspiracy to convert the entire country into Christianity" and yoga and Ayurveda were "being maligned by targeting" Ramdev. He tweeted an image of Dr Johnrose Austin Jayalal, the national president of the IMA, accusing the latter of attempting to propagate Christianity in hospitals and colleges.
Balkrishna also posted a screenshot of an article on The Daily Switch from late March, which claimed that Jayalal wanted to use his position to convert young medical students and doctors to Christianity. Interestingly, Ramdev also retweeted the posts by Balkrishna.
RSS mouthpiece Organiser covered the allegations against Jayalal in an article on Tuesday, noting the IMA chief had been leading the crusade against Ramdev.
On Wednesday, BJP leader P. Muralidhar Rao tweeted The Daily Switch article and wrote "Is it true..?? Shocking... IMA has a moral and ethical obligation to come out clean on this to protect its image of fairness & integrity."
Gaurav Goel, a BJP spokesperson from Chandigarh, shared a screenshot of The Daily Switch article, on Tuesday and tweeted, "Now please understand why IMA is after Swami Ramdev. The IMA President wants to convert Young Medical Students to Christianity."
BJP MP Subramanian Swamy also shared The Daily Switch article on Twitter late on Tuesday and asked "Is this verified?"
Jayalal responded to Swamy by tweeting an interview he had given to US-based magazine Christianity Today in March. In the interview, Jayalal had argued that the pandemic had stirred the church in India to action. Jayalal asked Swamy to read the Christianity Today article and see whether he was promoting "religious faith". He claimed the allegations against him were "purposely done to tarnish me".
Jayalal tweeted "Respectful Dr, I have great respect for your intellectual comments and deep understanding on various issues. I appeal to you sir,kindly read the article cited as I am promoting religious faith and kindly comment on where I have done like that? It is purposely done to tarnish me."
Jayalal, who is a professor of surgery at Tirunelveli Government Medical College Hospital in Tamil Nadu, was elected national president of the IMA for 2020-21. He has specialised in laparoscopic surgery.
Jayalal had responded to the claims by Balkrishna by telling The Times of India, “I have never done or intended to do anything with religion in mind."
Dr. D.D. Chaudhary, a member of the central working committee of the IMA, had criticised Balkrishna over the allegations. Chaudhary told The New Indian Express, "This is unfortunate that such people with a big following are making statements like this. At this hour, there should be nothing like this to create confusion and divide among the masses. People will be confused and suffer."
