Uproar in Rajya Sabha over Ramdev's infertility medicine

The Rajya Sabha witnessed an uproar on Thursday when members raised the issue of yoga guru Baba Ramdev's infertility medicine 'Divya Putrajeevak Seed'.

A statement from Ramdev's aide S.K. Tijarawala, however, said "'Putrajivak' is a classical name and deals with infertility issue, not gender selection".

Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leader K.C. Tyagi raised the issue soon after the house met, and demanded a probe into the matter.

Tyagi showed a product of 'Divya Pharmacy' from Haryana and said: "PM gave a call for 'Beti Bachao Beti Padhao', I have bought this I have a receipt. No one can say it is old."

Divya Pharmacies sells Ramdev's medicines. Tyagi did not name Ramdev but said: "He is the brand ambassador of a state."

"Does government of India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi approve all these things?," he asked.

Amid protests from treasury benches, Samajwadi Party member Jaya Bachchan took the packet and gave it to Health Minister J.P. Nadda, who was present in the house.

"We need not fight over this... If there are attempts...with regard to selection of sex through a medicine, or pre-natal sex determination, they are all against the law. If this is being encouraged by any state government, it is against the Constitution. But chair cannot do anything," Deputy Chairman P.J. Kurien said.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said: "This is not an issue to argue on. We will tell the minister to probe whether it is in accordance with law."

Nadda also intervened and said: "This is related to department of Ayush. Government is serious about the matter. We will look into it and action will be taken."

Jaya Bachchan said the government should assure that it will take off the product from market, and take action against those who manufacture the medicine.

Nadda again said the prime minister is personally monitoring the 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' scheme.

Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said that many spurious medicines are being sold and the health minister should inquire into it.

A statement from Patanjali Yogpeeth later slammed the members for maligning Ayurveda because of "lack of knowledge and personal interests".

"The truth is that in Ayurveda those suffering infertility have been using 'Putrajivak' medicine for centuries," the statement said.

"The Hindi name is 'Putravijak' and botanical name is 'Putrajivaroxburghii. From Maharshi Charak to Sushrut, all Ayurveda experts have written about it... It is to remove infertility from women, not for sex selection," the statement added.

The website of Divya Pharmacy prices the product at $10.99 and the description says it is a "unique herbal product of putrajeevak which is aphrodisiac, controls habitual abortion and helps in (curing) sterility".