A photograph of Baba Ramdev admitted in a hospital is being circulated on social media with the claim that the yoga guru had to be hospitalised after he overdosed on cow urine. But no such thing has happened, and an old photograph is being circulated to mock Baba Ramdev using the cow urine drink jibe, which is a favourite tool used by Jihadi terrorists and Islamic fundamentalists to mock Hindus.
The photo shows a weak-looking Baba Ramdev in a hospital, surrounded by several people including doctors. A Twitter user (@rehman_5) shared the photo claiming that he drank “too much cow urine to show resistance power to corona virus”.
Baba ramdev in hospital. He drank too much cow urine to show its resistance power to Corona virus!!!!
— AR (@rehman_5) March 16, 2020
🤣😆😀..@jaavedjaaferi @Jairam_Ramesh @IndurChhugani pic.twitter.com/pV3jIir3UK
Similar claims were made by many other users, including users named ‘Areba Noor Wazir’ and ‘Bleed Green’ who identify themselves on Twitter as a Pakistani Muslims.
To avoid the Coronavirus Virus, Baba Ramdev from India was hospitalised after taking an overdose of Cow Urine 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/EzB9GUmBYC
— Areba Noor Wazir (@Areba_07) March 13, 2020
To avoid the Coronavirus Virus, Baba Ramdev from India was hospitalised after taking an overdose of Cow Urine. pic.twitter.com/fegAIfFyJh
— Bleed Green (@bleedgreenarmy) March 11, 2020
What’s the Truth?
Using the photograph to do a reverse image search on the Internet shows that the photograph is from 2011, when the health of Baba Ramdev had deteriorated following a hunger strike. The photograph was published by India Today in June 2011, which says that Baba Ramdev was admitted to the Himalayan Institute of Medical Sciences on Friday after his condition deteriorated at his ashram in Haridwar. He was on a fast for nine days to protest against corruption and black money issues, after which he was hospitalised.
The Photograph was taken on June 12, 2011, when Baba Ramdev had broken the fast after staying two days at the hospital. He had broken the fast on the appeal of spiritual leaders.
Debunking the misleading claims on March 5, the official spokesperson of Baba Ramdev, Tijarawala SK, said, “This is stupid and shameful. He (Ramdev) is perfectly healthy. He has been interviewed by several news channels in the past 2 days. Today he is travelling to Bangalore.”
यह बकवास कोरी है
— Tijarawala SK (@tijarawala) March 5, 2020
हरकत बहुत छिछोरी है।
पूज्य @yogrishiramdev पूर्णत: स्वस्थ हैं।
देशवासियों ने पिछले 2 दिन में उन्हें #coronavirusinindia
से बचाव/उपाय बताते हुए @aajtak @ABPNews @ZeeNews @indiatvnews @TV9Bharatvarsh @Republic_Bharat @News18India पर देखा है।
आज वह बैंगलौर गए हैं pic.twitter.com/kaj6juGKVr
Therefore, the claim that Baba Ramdev has been hospitalised recently for overdosing on cow urine is false.
The spiritual leader has often been the target of fake news. Earlier, an activist doctor had posted a confidential medical report of a private individual to falsely claim that the associate of Baba Ramdev consumes ganja (Marijuana). Dr Anand Rai, who is known as a whistleblower of the Vyapam scam in Madhya Pradesh, posted the copy of a medical test report on his verified Twitter handle making the claim.
Dr Rai is close to senior Congress leaders, who wanted to contest Madhya Pradesh assembly elections in 2018 on a congress ticket. In the medical report that he posted on Twitter, the name of the patient is mentioned as Acharya Balgovind Ji, and the report indicates that urine test of the person is positive THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol), which is an active ingredient of Marijuana.
