Patanjali founder Ramdev has agreed to take down the videos in which he had used communal slurs to target pharmaceutical and food company Hamdard and its popular drink Rooh Afza, Bar and Bench reported.
On April 3, Ramdev had targeted Hamdard's Rooh Afza and claimed that the pharmaceutical and food company was using its money for building masjids and madrasas. He used the term “sharbat jihad” in his video while promoting a new drink by Patanjali. Hamdard had then moved the Delhi High Court which heard the matter on Tuesday.
“This is a case which is shocking, which goes beyond disparagement. This is a case of creating communal divide, akin to hate speech. It will not have protection from law of defamation…this should not be even allowed for a moment. We have enough problems in this country,” Bar and Bench quoted senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, who appeared for Hamdard, as saying.
Justice Amit Bansal slammed Ramdev for the videos, observing that the Patanjali founder's remarks were indefensible and shocked the court's conscience. The court then asked Ramdev to file an affidavit to undertake he will not make such statements in future and posted the matter for hearing on May 1.
Congress leader Digvijaya Singh had last week filed a police complaint against Ramdev in Bhopal for allegedly promoting religious hatred. Ramdev had later defended his remark, saying he had not named any specific brand in his video.
“I haven’t taken anybody’s name, but the Rooh Afza people took ‘sharbat jihad’ on themselves… this means they are doing this ‘jihad’,” Ramdev had said.
This is not the first time Patanjali has landed in such a controversy. Patanjali founders Ramdev and Acharya Balkrishna were pulled up in court for the company's misleading advertisements against evidence-based medicine. They had also been found to be in breach of their statement that they would not telecast or publish such misleading ads.
Newslaundry earlier reported that there was plenty of blame to go around for Patanjali’s misleading ads fiasco. Read here.
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