Patanjali is an Indian consumer goods company that is based
in Hardiwar. It was started in the year 2006 by Ramdev and Balkrishna but it
got a boost after the pro-Hindu nationalist party of BJP came to power in India
in 2014. It is a manufacturer and packager of natural and herbal products. Its
registered office is in Delhi and the industry is in Haridwar in Uttarakhand.
But since its inception, it has been embroiled in a number of controversies
about its land encroachment and grabs, its closeness to the BJP party and the
favors it gets from them, and also about the quality of its products. Several
bans have been imposed on its products in Indian states and Nepal.
About Patanjali
The company came to birth in 2006 and is owned by Balkrishna
and Baba Ramdev. Ramdev himself is a school dropout. While Balkrishna claims to
have high school and Sanskrit degrees of Sampurnanand Sanskrit University but it
is alleged that these degrees do not exist on records of the University. The
company packages and claims to manufacture herbal foods, beverages, medicines, cleaning
agents, personal care products, and also has ventured into fashion. But its
products have repeatedly faced bans in India and also neighboring countries due
to qualities that do not meet the desired expectations. There are also cases of
false claims about cures of diseases by this firm’s products and the several local
state governments have asked the firm to go back on its claims.
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| The products of the controversial company [Source: Money Control] |
The company gained importance after the BJP came to power. It
became the fastest-growing company. It has in 2018 a declared revenue of INR
9500 crore that is equivalent to USD 1.2 billion. Its income in 2018 was INR
590 crore that is equivalent to USD 80 million. Its total assets are valued at
INR 4345 crore that is equal to USD 590 million. Its revenue rose from 100
crore in 2010-2011 to 9500 crore in 2018-2019. It has more than 200k employees
working for it.
Baba Ramdev is the face of the company and makes a lot of
business decisions. And, Balkrishna is the main owner holding 95% of the shares
and looks into the day-to-day activities of the company. Balkrishna has been
charged with cheating and criminal conspiracy for getting fake degrees to
acquire a passport.
The innumerable controversies of Patanjali
Since its inception and particularly after 2014, the company
has been embroiled in a number of controversies. There have been quality issues
with its products and the company has been accused of misleading advertisements
and false claims. Several of its products such as amla juice and other herbal
medicines have faced bans in India and neighboring nations such as Nepal due to
poor quality.
Besides, there have been concerns raised about the working conditions
of the factory. The workers have to touch the feet of Baba Ramdev and
Balkrishna whenever they enter the premises. Additionally, their pay scale is
low. They get a meagre INR 6000 per month and have to work for 12 hours each
day for 6 days a week. They are told that they are working in the factory as a
seva (service) and hence should not ask for any pay hike!!! There are legal
cases of land encroachment against Patanjali as well.
Fake medicinal claims and poor-quality products
Patanjali has substandard herbal products. In June 2020, it
launched Coronil and started marketing it as a COVID-19 cure. The central FDA
had allowed it to be sold as an immune booster but the company started selling
it as a cure for coronavirus. Hence, Maharashtra banned the product in its
state. The company has been sued in Bihar and Rajasthan for cheating and selling
of fake medicines. The Madras High Court has imposed a fine of INR 1000k
against the company for its false claims about Coronil. Additionally, in 2017,
Nepal had banned several of the products of Patanjali for substandard quality
and false claims. The Nepal regulator found pathogenic bacteria in these
products. The UK regulator was also enraged by it and has threatened action
against the company if it sells these products to the UK market.
Its product called Divya Putrajeevak Seed was sold for infertility
but it was marketed as a drug that could promise the birth of a boy. Indian
couples and families are crazy for the birth of a son and would go to any
extreme to have one. Hence the product sale rose. Despite opposition from
activists, the product continues to be sold in India.
In 2015, it started production and sale of instant noodles
with no license to do so. It also made drugs that they claimed would cure HIV,
cancer, and even homosexuality. The company has labeled homosexuality as a mental
disease. In December 2016, it was fined INR 11 lakhs for misleading
advertisements after many of its products such as mustard, salt, honey failed
quality tests. Around 40% of the products are substandard. Advertising Standards
Council of India has also issued a warning to the firm for disparaging
competitor products with no proof. It thus violated the ASCI code and has been
warned on several occasions.
The Baba had said last year that if mustard oil is applied
to the nostrils the coronavirus would go into the stomach and be killed by the
acids there!!! He had also claimed on a famous Indian News Channel that if one
with high blood pressure or asthma holds breath for 30 seconds or a young holds
it for 1 minute, it means that he does not have COVID-19!!! Such unsubstantiated
claims are endless and come from the audacity and defiance characteristic of
people who are protected by the government!!!
Land encroachment
The main factory is in Haridwar but new production units
have commenced operation in Noida, Nagpur, and Indore. The private Haridwar factory
has 35 armed CISF commandos guarding it thanks to the BJP. Baba Ramdev himself
has Z security.
There are nearly 100 cases filed against Ramdev in
Uttarakhand. 81 of these cases are for violation of the Zamindari Abolition and
Land Reforms Act and the Indian Stamps Act. The factory has been said to
pollute Ban Ganga rivulet with its effluent. It had led to death of several animals
in the area. The villagers had complained but it fell on deaf ears. It
continues to endanger the water body, people, and animals.
The firm tried to grab 401 bighas of land in Karauli
district in Eastern Rajasthan in 2018 for its activities but the move was
rejected by the local government. The land acquisition was illegal and is
actually under the name of a temple and belongs to an IDOL!!! The idol is
considered a minor and hence the land can neither be leased nor sold.
About 485 hectares of the land in Rowmari situated around
170 km from the capital city of Guwahati in Assam was allotted to Patanjali
illegally. It is in the Bodoland Territorial Autonomous Districts and is home
to the plains tribes mainly the Bodos. This property cannot be given to a nontribal
and hence residents have opposed the move. The allotters and the allottee are
giving some vague and flimsy reasons for the allotment that is not digestible.
Additionally, several of government-owned lands have also been handed over to
Baba Ramdev and his company. But the landowners have not been compensated and
many of them do not even know that the land has been given away. There is an
ongoing agitation against this illegal encroachment and allotment.
The firm had also purchased land illegally in Haryana’s
Aravalli hills that is protected land. He had grabbed around 400 acres of
land in Kot village there using 300 power-of-attorney agreements.
These are just the cases and problems about Patanjali that
has come to light but it may just be the tip of the iceberg! There may be many
more submerged crimes of the firm and the owners that may take a few years to
be revealed fully or maybe with the change of the government!!!
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