Ayush without Homoeopathy? – better not to appoint doctors as Ayush Secretary

Dr Sushil Vats
Editor, Vital Informer

Ministry of Ayush ignoring Homoeopathy is not a surprise but the surprise is that AYUSH constituted Ayush Advisory Committee and there is not a single homeopathic doctor in it.

In an office memorandum dated 9th March 2021 Mr.Anjan Biswas under secretary to Government of India, wrote that it has been decided with approval of Hon’ble MoS[I] for AYUSH to constitute Advisory Committee for the Ministry of AYUSH. List has 18 Members but surprisingly non from Homeopathy.

This list is majorly constituted to accommodate strong Ayurveda lobby led by Secretary AYUSH Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha ,also has representative of Unani, Sidha and Yoga represented by Balkrishan of Ramdev’s Patanjali. Advisory Committee has one representative each from Arogya Bharti and Vigyan Bharti both are RSS affiliated organisations. But Minister or Secretary did not find Homeopathy the second most popular system of medicine in India worthy of place in Ayush Advisory Committee.

The Terms of Reference of the Ayush Advisory Committee are

1. Will provide support and guidance to Ministry of AYUSH on Research, Manufacturing, Services, Regulatory aspects, Promotion of global exports etc.
2. The Committee may convene meeting once in a month.
3. Sitting fees, TA and DA will be admissible as per rules.
4. Chairman can co-opt ant other member as and when required.
5. All expenditure in this regard would be borne by Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences [CCRAS] New Delhi

There would also be a Mentoring Group for Advisory committee, including three Members of Parliament

1. Sh.Anurag Sharma, MP Jhansi
2. Dr.Manoj Rajoria, MP,Karauli- Dholpur, Rajasthan
3. Dr.Bhaartiben Dhirubhai Shiyal, MP Bhavnagar, Gujarat

Ayush never gave homeopathy its due, earlier as department of Ayush under Ministry of Health & family Welfare and now Ayush being an independent ministry treatment to homeopathy is getting worse by the day. Post of Advisor homeopathy has been lying vacant for a long time now, even when advisor was there she was never consulted on policy matters regarding homeopathy and was not treated at par with Advisor Ayurveda. Mr.Kotecha being a Ayurvedacharya himself is obviously interested in creating strong say for Ayurveda and said to have a strong anti homeopathy mind set.

In our fight against COVID19, when homeopathy was getting a good response as a preventive medicine, Secretary did not brief Health Minister Dr.Harshvardhan properly to speak about the advantage of using homeopathy as preventive during various press briefings. AYUSH Task Force on COVID19 did not have right homeopathic representation and during the many meetings of Ayush

Task Force homeopathy as preventive was not discussed properly neither task force strongly recommended the various benefits of using homeopathy during this pandemic.

How Ayush mandarins are treating homeopathy was seen during a crucial meeting AYUSH had with the Prime Minister during the peak of COVID19, while Ayrvedic,Sindha and other representatives were allowed to speak, none of the 3 leading homeopaths present in that meeting were given time to put forward case of homeopathy. This is a known fact that both Dr.Harshvardhan and Sh.Narender Modi are known supporters of homeopathy, both had acknowledged personal use of homeopathy and we missed a great opportunity to show our worth in the eye of the government of India.

But this bad treatment to homeopathy also has contributions from our side also, for a long time government of India has had issues with the working of the CCH, an organisation high jacked by people who had strong interest in Homeopathic education institutions and these people created a huge list of 200 homeopathic colleges most of these being sub-standard and thus damaging the homeopathic education. Two presidents of Central Council of Homeopathy were booked by the CBI for various irregularities in giving recognitions and approvals to various colleges.

Our associations are the weakest link in our profession IIHP and HMAI have regularly failed in their duty of protecting the rights of homeopathy fraternity in India. This is not the first time they have been found lacking guts to take up issue with the Government of India; they are nonexistent when it comes to represent the interest of homeopathy to government of India. Both these organisations lack leadership of substance and most of their leaders just want to be in the good list of Mandarins in ministry of AYUSH.

We had contacted one senior official of IIHP, who said IIHP had plan to give a representation to Ministry of AYUSH, however same was withhold on learning that Dr.Anil Khurana has been accommodated in the AYUSH Advisory Committee. We did not hear anything from HMAI or any other associations. One senior homeopath told Vital Informer that Homeopathy is German in origin, so don’t except our government to treat it at par with Ayurveda, this senior doctor is a deep supporter of this government, so he does not mind wrong treatment to homeopathy, which has given him so much fame and wealth.

Nomination of Dr.Anil Khurana as member should not satisfy us because he is a government official and we should press ministry to give us representation in proportion to numbers of homeopaths in this country and also in recognition of the role homeopathy is playing in extending services during this pandemic and as also in day to day health issues of this nation.

Homeopathy is being sidelined by present Government and we may ignore it at our own peril.