Isn’t this a catchy headlines for an article or a video? People would love to watch such videos, especially in India. We love to watch someone going down, someone being ridiculed, some controversy, fights and arguments, isn’t it? It’s so easy and there is so much more entertainment. Isn’t that a reason, the most putrid and illogical shows on the Indian television & social media, gain the maximum amount of views.
In the similar context, most Indians are self-made experts. Topic? You name it. They can turn into experts on any damn topic within matter of seconds. Try opening a discussion on a subject, in a group of people, completely alien to them.
What happens next? You will see most people turning pro and giving you advice on that topic too. There would be few who may agree that they don’t know much about the topic. But such people are far and few. Well no problems in that. Gossiping is just for entertainment and enjoyment.
But the issue comes when this gossip and general advice turns into medical advice, advice to treat illnesses, & cure serious diseases. For e.g. our parents and grandparents and other senior relatives, often give us advice on various home remedies for minor illnesses, skin and hair care etc. They may not know that the reason we take turmeric in milk before sleep, especially during recovery from injuries or illnesses, is due to the excellent anti-inflammatory properties of turmeric and the protein content in milk. But, nonetheless the advice is a great one.
Similarly, if you are advised to use certain plants, spices, herbs etc. for better and clear skin, healthy hair, better digestion etc. it’s absolutely no issues in trying it. It may not suit few people, but for most it works good.
Now imagine, tomorrow your mother/grandmother opens a clinic in your neighborhood, with a big board in front, with a doctor behind her name, and she starts consulting people. How would you feel? funny? May be for that instance, but this act of hers can get her arrested immediately, under the Indian law, for illegal medical practice. The same is true for Allopathy, Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani, & Homeopathy.
Taking the same example as reference, what would you say to those who are committing this offence every day, without any fear? These are the fake medical practitioners who have been caught without a degree running a clinic, sometimes for over two to three decades. Fake ayurvedic doctors claiming to be experts in Ayurveda, prescribing overnight cures and medicines, and same is with other illegal medical practices.
Such people are everywhere around the world, but in India, they may be in an even greater number. You can find babas treating people with chronic diseases by doing things which is beyond comprehension. There are babas who kiss people to cure them, other one sucks out kidney stones by placing his mouth on the stomach, there are babas who touch people, and they get cured of broken spines and chronic diseases and start dancing around in front of hundreds of people, and the quackery goes on and on.
Now let’s take examples of a more refined type. There are babas selling self-made ayurvedic medicines openly on television, claiming it to be the wonder cure or drug for every possible disease. There are social media and YouTube doctors, who give cures of diseases on channel, openly without fear. They claim to cure thyroid, PCOD, remove specks, cure digestion issues in 24hrs, cure corona virus, cure depression, cancers, heart disease, arthritis, liver disease, AIDS, you name it and they have an instant, overnight cure, for everyone.
There are fake doctors, who claim to be diabetic experts, and have even opened their own medical associations, world records, fake research journals, fake colleges and institutes and many have even started offering diploma and certificate courses.
But there are certain common factors which binds all these scamsters together:
- They will never have any medical/ayurvedic etc. degree. They will either have no educational background related to medical fields, or they would have fake degrees and certificates from fake colleges/institutes. Acc. to them you don’t need anything to be a medical expert.
- They will always put the real medical experts down. Acc. to virtually every one of these scamsters, all doctors are thieves, all hospitals are money making businesses and should be shut down, entire pharma industry is a scam, and all medicines should be thrown away.
- They don’t need any diagnosis or testing, before prescribing these bogus cures. For them their cure is the ultimate in human invention. Also, their cure doesn’t need time. It’s generally an overnight cure, in 24hrs, in 2-4 steps, instant results. But the silver lining is that they always give you guarantee for the cure. What else does someone want.
In a country, where corona had more cures in one month of its discovery than the entire world combined, what better can you expect. It’s not that other countries don’t have such scamsters and snake oil salesmen, but not to the extent they are present in India.
The question many would ask is that, aren’t these people afraid of the law or getting caught or being sent to the prison? The answer is absolutely not.
This question can be asked to much more serious offenders and criminals too, who have committed crimes like rape, murders, extortions, robberies, illegal drugs and arms dealing, and the most horrendous crimes one can think of. When such dangerous criminals aren’t afraid, then we can surely say that the fake doctors won’t even care. And they don’t.
Why? Because they know certain facts about the legal system of this country:
- They know that firstly to file a case against them, someone needs to take out a hell lot of time from their personal lives, and no one has so much time to spend on them.
- They know that, filing a case and then fighting involves a lot of expenses. How many are ready to spend the money from their pocket to fight injustice. And even if someone tries, question is till when?
- They know that, the legal system of our country is so slow, that if someone files a case against them, then it would take years before any charges could be proven against them, if it actually ever does. By that time they would have earned enough to either shut down their present business and start another scam, or they would eventually find a legal loophole to protect them.
When simple cases takes years to solve, and millions of cases are pending already in all courts around the country, so why even worry. The classic examples would be babas who ran their illegal trade for decades and did everything illegal under the sun, in the name of God; before some government came and got them arrested and imprisoned.
These scamsters know one thing that India is a country full of illiterates or what I call as uneducated literates. The latter are those people who simple have a school or college degree, but do not have the basic common sense, reasoning or logic. Such people can be at all levels in the society, that’s why stupidity is so rampant around the country.
These scamsters and fake medical experts, feed on the emotions of the people. They strike right at the most vulnerable point of a person. You are troubled with a chronic disease, voila they have an instant cure for it. Just name the disease, and they have the cure ready, then and there. You have sexual dysfunction, don’t even worry, the cure is ready. These people can cure diseases which don’t even exist.
They are experts in turning anything into a disease and then cure it. Heard of night fall/nocturnal emission/wet dreams? A normal human phenomena, in India, has been turned into a dreaded disease and there are people prescribing cures for it.
You are fighting serious issue like depression or any mental issue, no need to consult a doctor, just ask them, and you have depression cure in one video. You have been suffering from thyroid, don’t go to a allopathic doctor, ayurvedic or homeopathic doctor, just do these things at home, and you are cured in a week with guarantee.
For them heart diseases, diabetes, HIV, arthritis etc. are all scams and these diseases don’t exist. Just eat their product, follow their diet, or follow their steps and you can get cured of any disease you want.
Amazing, now what’s the next step out government should take? Close down all medical, ayurvedic, homeopathic etc. colleges and universities. Shut down all hospitals and clinics. But what about the patients? They don’t have to worry at all. For them, there are these self-proclaimed super medical experts with instant cure.
Actually, it’s so logical. Why have a medical board or association or why even have a health ministry. People should have the choice to cure and get cured.
How stupid are these doctors, who have devoted their life to studies and research and helping people. Who have been studying for decades together to reach a particular level of expertise and specialization. They should instead give miracle cures instead and just curse all the other doctors, it’s so simple.
What about the people? What about them? They will fully support these pseudo scientists, and fake medical experts, and are ready to defend them at any cost. So what if science and research says otherwise. Who needs science, who wants research, we want instant miracles.
There is a new trend which is lately being seen in the market, especially since the time the Indian government started supporting the indigenous ayurvedic industry and yogic sciences; that anything you can’t justify by research, science or evidence, just use the term Ayurveda behind it. That’s the golden word to justify all bullshit today.
What about the qualified ayurvedic doctors? Who needs them, just the name of Ayurveda is enough. This is exactly, when all fake companies use the term ‘research based’ which actually has no meaning, as the term itself is convincing. Who is going to ask, what research, or study. Just use the words smartly. And see how the educated illiterates of this country will line up after you.
Try this, go to YouTube. Check the videos made by qualified doctors or researchers giving you science and evidence. Hardly any people are interested in watching them. Now, check the videos made by these fake medical experts, who claim to cure diseases overnight with their magical cures, and see how their views goes in millions in no time.
Most of these scamsters and quacks when asked, often say that the entire medical and pharma system is a scam. Of course there is no denying that there are no scams in the medical field, be it private hospitals looting money in the name of cures, pharma industry selling overpriced medicines and a lot more.
But let me ask you another question, can you tell me one field in the world, where scams don’t exist. Having a legal system or police, doesn’t mean the end of crime and unlawful activities. Aren’t there students cheating in school exams? Aren’t there scams in financial sector? Aren’t there scams in police or defence sector? Aren’t their scam in agricultural sector? Aren’t their scams in sports? Is there any field which has more scams than politics?
What do you do then? Close all schools and colleges, shut down all banks and financial institution? Is that how it should be? Then if there is a scam in medical sector, should the entire medical community be punished, or the criminal? Malpractices exist everywhere. That’s why law exists and that’s why rules are made. Otherwise society wont exist, and you would be living in a jungle.
There is no denying the facts that medical and health care system is increasingly become costlier. The private hospitals though offer you much better services, but are not within everyone’s reach. The government healthcare systems and hospitals are overburdened. Because of this people are looking for alternative and cheaper system of medicines. Ayurveda and yoga are two traditional Indian systems which are gaining popularity both domestically and internationally.
And it is this popularity which has attracted these quacks who bypass the regulatory authorities and promote their false products and services. Print news media and the internet are full of such quacks promoting their dubious cures for diseases and serious ailments. Many such scamsters manage to gather some expertise in the terminology and essential ingredients and start claiming themselves as specialists. However, they actually have no fundamental knowledge to treat or cure any disease and they legally not allowed to do so.
Fake ayurvedic doctors & fake ayurvedic colleges are commonly being busted just like fake allopathic doctors with fake degrees are. Please refer to the National Health Portal of Government of India (https://www.nhp.gov.in/career-prospects-in-ayurveda-medicine_mtl) to know the path to become a qualified doctor in Ayurveda. In India, to become a qualified Ayurveda doctor, you have to do a BAMS (Bachelors of Ayurvedic Medicine & Surgery) which is of 5½ years duration (including 1 year internship). Thereafter, someone opting for a post graduate study has to undergo a 3 year duration course to become an MD or MS in Ayurveda, in which they can chose from 22 different subjects, to specialize. After post-graduation, one can opt for a PhD degree, in any chosen specialization, which may take him around 3-7years more.
Now, this makes a total of over 14 years of education in studying Ayurveda. Does this sound intimidating enough? The other medicine fields also have similar timeline. Now imagine, someone claims themselves to be a fake Ayurveda/allopathy doctor, or a fake PhD in some other subject, prescribing you cure. On the other hand are people, who are no ones, and still have the audacity to openly prescribe medicines and cures.
Why isn’t the government dong anything? Who said they are not doing? Just check on Google, the amount of fake doctors busted and arrested both in Ayurveda & allopathy. Check the number of rackets running in the name of Ayurveda, be it fake colleges selling fake BAMS degrees, just like fake MBBS. Fake medicine factories of Ayurveda and allopathy running in the country.
Remember, be it any form of medicine system, it has to be based on rigorous testing, deep research, strong laws and proper laid down rules and regulations. You know what is the difference in most western countries and us, when it comes to practice of medicine? They believe in rigorous testing and evaluation before implementing anything. They don’t accept anything blindly. The rules in these countries are extremely stringent. That’s why the trust factor in most of their products increases worldwide.
Ayurvedic medicines or therapies, just like allopathic or any other form of medicines/therapies have to undergo proper testing, trials and proper approvals from the government. There are many Indian and international research studies proving the benefits of ayurvedic herbs and medicines and have even shown some of them to be equally or more effective then present allopathic drugs and therapies.
But I don’t understand, the issue with Indian people in large. If after testing scientifically, through proper research and analysis, something doesn’t prove to be as effective as it has claimed to be, or sometimes simply bogus, then why most Indians refuse to accept it, and are ready to defend it any cost. I can understand companies selling useless products and supplements trying to defend the falsehood, but what’s with the general population? A classic example of this would be to see any dubious claim of Ayurveda being busted on YouTube, and check the hate comments and abuses hurled at them.
What do people want to hear? Sweet lies? According to them, anyone telling the truth and busting a fake Ayurveda claim, is going against Indian culture. For e.g. people giving you cures for serious diseases in a video, without any qualification to do so, that too absolutely absurd cures, still people love to watch them and worse believe them. They are ready to defend them at any cost, by just one reasoning in mind, i.e. this is Ayurveda, it can’t be wrong. These are the same type of people who become blind bhakts of fraud babas in this country.
Firstly just like any other medicinal system in the world, Ayurveda can also be absolutely wrong in a lot of things and it has already proven to be so. In fact, in most cases it’s not even Ayurveda, but bullshit being promoted in the name of Ayurveda, which actually downgrades the amazing science of Ayurveda. The same is the case with fake doctors making dubious claims on the internet.
Now let me give you the most shocking figures, directly by the WHO (World Health Organization), which have been well accepted by our government authorities (https://www.who.int/hrh/resources/16058health_workforce_India.pdf):
“Among allopathic doctors, as many as 31.4% were educated only up to secondary school level – and as many as 57.3% did not have a medical qualification. Among nurses and midwives, 67.1% had education only up to secondary school level. Only 42.7% of allopathic doctors had a medical qualification.
Among AYUSH doctors, the proportions with only secondary schooling or less were as follows: ayurvedic doctors 25.2%, homeopathic doctors 33.1%, and unani doctors 39.1%. For the aggregate category of all doctors, 30.8% had education only up to secondary school level.
The percentage of all doctors with a medical qualification was 45.0%; of allopathic doctors 42.7%; and of AYUSH doctors 52.8%. Within the category of AYUSH doctors, the percentages with a medical qualification were as follows: ayurvedic 60.1%; homeopathic 41.8%; and unani 45.8%.”
Do these figures ring a bell in your brain, or you still have a reason to support quacks. By the way, this research includes only the real vs fake medical professionals. It does not include those, who themselves claim to know everything and give cures for medical problems either through television or internet.
Remember, there are fake scamsters and quacks in all professions in the world, but more in medical profession, that too in India, because medical profession has a more chance of exploitation, and thus more ways to earn money. In India, because the law is way too weak to really take an action and punish these quacks, who are playing with the lives of people.
Now let me ask the blind and mute people of this country who believe in such quacks. What happens when you fall ill, or there is a medical emergency in your family? If there is an accident or a heart attack, or stroke, what is the first step you take? Do you go to YouTube to check for treatment? Do you go to babaji for guarantee cure? No, you rush to the nearest hospital. Why? Because you trust the doctors there and know that they are the only chance you may have for survival. Because you know, the doctor is qualified to treat the patient and handle the emergency.
Now, if you have an illness or a chronic disease, whom do you go to, either a qualified doctor, or a qualified Ayurveda doctor or a homeopathic doctor etc. Which line of treatment to opt for is your choice. Let’s say you chose Ayurveda, great.
Now, when you go to an ayurvedic doctor, and you have a thyroid issue, the doctor asks some questions, asks for basic blood tests, performs a proper diagnoses and then prescribes you a set of medicines, with proper time and dosage. Thereafter, he may prescribe you some basic dietary or exercise related recommendations. Isn’t this generally the entire process with all qualified medical doctors?
If the problem goes very serious, then they may refer you to a specialist in that field. So you may be referred to an endocrinologist. Who again diagnosis you deeply, checks all previous medicines and records and then starts with a line of treatment, depending on the requirement of the patient. In extreme cases, they may prescribe for an immediate surgery.
But in the entire process:
- Will the doctor, without knowing who you are, what’s your blood report saying, and what is your individual diagnosis, ever prescribe you a medicine or a cure?
- Did the doctor, without seeing you, just said, do these 4 things and you will be cured with guarantee?
- Will a doctor ever give you any medicine without writing a prescription?
If an extremely qualified doctor is not able to do so, then what makes you think that a scamster with no qualification can cure a disease in just one video, without even knowing anything about who is the patient?
Now let me ask all these fake scamsters who claim that all medicines are useless, and doctors & hospitals are a scam. How many are willing to give in writing, that next time if anyone from their family including them falls sick, they would not go to a doctor? Whatever may come, they won’t go to these scam doctors and hospitals. Ok, now how many people following these quacks, and saying yes on whatever bullshit they say, are ready to take this undertaking and give in writing?
I’ll tell you the answer. Not even one person has the guts to do that. These quacks are the biggest cowards also. They know how to scam people, but also know how to keep themselves safe.
I request all the people following these scamsters to understand the difference between cure and general health advice. Anyone can give you an health advice, though ideally that should also be based on some research or evidence. But when it comes to cure, only a medically qualified doctor has the legal right to do that.
