AIDS may not be a viral disease, declares Swami Ramdev at Press Conference.

[Guest guest]

Press Conference of Swami Ramdev at Hotel Swosti Plaza, Bhubaneswar,on

01.01.2007, 16:30 hours.

Report by: Jagannath Chatterjee

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Swami Ramdev was at his controversial best when he presented himself for the

Press Conference in Hotel Swosti Plaza at Bhubaneswar on 01.01.2007, evening

16:30 hours.

The Swami had no special aura around him, a frail ordinary figure, but he

spoke with emphasis and a lot of confidence.

He apprised the journalists present about how he has converted yogic exercises

from contortions that only the adept could practice to easily performed

exercises that benefitted the common man.

He pointed out that India spent 5.15 lakh crores on health and yet healthcare

was beyond 65% of the suffering multitude. He said he was happy that his yoga

costs nothing, being freely available in direct to home TV, and was available to

the poorest of the poor. His personal coaching, at huge camps, is at a cost but

even there there is provision for free passes for those who cannot afford it.

He was unhappy at how the Indian government was targetting him for daring to

declare that he could cure diseases. Swami Ramdev said he was not committing any

crime but only making public his findings from the research laboratories that he

had set up at his base camp, Haridwar. He said just because prevalent medicine

could not cure diseases did not mean that others could not do so.

He informed that he had cured many forms of cancer and that he had increased

the CD4 count in AIDS patients from 19 to 400, the normal CD count being 500. If

this is not a sign of cure then what is, questioned the Swami. The doctors in

the Health Ministry were aware of his achievements, said the Swami, because they

had seen and supervised them.

Criticising the one sided health emphasis, the Swami declared that the Health

Ministry should be renamed the Allopathic Ministry and the Health Minister the

Allopathic Minister. He said he was not against allopathy but it was useful only

in emergency situations, where it would continue to be useful. But treating

diseases was an entirely different thing, he said, thus indicating that he was

better equipped to handle them.

He was very critical of the way he was being treated. He lamented that whereas

the government should encourage him and ask him to share his knowledge, the

Health Minister was trying to suppress him with uncalled for comments. Let them

do their job and let me do mine, was the Swami's rejoinder.

Regarding AIDS, the Swami pointed out that it was not yet confirmed that the

HIV caused AIDS. There is a lot of confusion on the issue which is a hot debate

all over the world, he said. He refused to speak on the matter of vaccines

saying he did not want to comment on the topic. This reporter handed over his

article on vaccines to the Swami which he acknowledged with a smile.

He signed off by saying that he was sure the people of Bhubaneswar would

benefit from his yoga camp and cure themselves of whatever they suffered from.

At least I will lighten the load of Bhubaneswar by 1 lakh kg's he said,

referring to the number of obese people who would cut their flab at the camp.

Replying to whether he would set up any facility at Bhubaneswar the Swami said

he was trying to expand to all corners of the country but it would take time. He

said 250 of his trained yoga teachers were already working in the city.

Denying that he was joining politics, the Swami dodged a question on the

hanging of Saddam Hussein saying that he was too controversial in his own work

and did not want to add to it by commenting on such issues.He said he was

extremely happy that his camp will be fully attended for the three days, both

morning and evening.

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jagchat01@...

" We have allowed (the drugs) industry to subvert the rules of science. We have

watched quietly as governments and academics have colluded with industry to hide

information critical to our patients. We have remained silent as our medical

schools have churned out graduates who have no knowledge of the dilemmas and

scandals of medicine. We have allowed many of our medical journals to become

corrupted and timid, " - Dr Aubrey Blumsohn

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