30 April,2015 03:11 PM IST | | Agencies
The Rajya Sabha witnessed an uproar on Thursday with Opposition members protesting over yoga guru Ramdev's medicine 'Putrajeevak Beej', which promises the birth of a male child
New Delhi: The Rajya Sabha witnessed an uproar on Thursday when members raised yoga guru Baba Ramdev's infertility medicine 'Divya Putrajeevak Seed'.
The issue was raised soon after the house met by Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leader K.C. Tyagi, who demanded a probe.
Baba Ramdev
Tyagi showed a product of 'Divya Pharmacy' in Haryana and said: "PM gave a call for 'Beti Bachao Beti Padhao', I have bought this I have a receipt. No one can say it is old".
Divya Pharmacies sells Ramdev's medicines.
He did not name Ramdev but said: "He is the brand ambassador of a state."
"Whether government of India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi approve all these things?," he asked.
Amid protests from treasury benches, Samajwadi Party member Jaya Bachchan took the packet and gave it to Health Minister J.P. Nadda, who was present in the house.
Javed Akhtar asked saracastically will the government enquire whether it is illegal to determine sex.
As the packets got into circulation, Minister of State for Parliament Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi asked Tyagi, "How many packets do you have?"
Bachchan demanded that the product be taken out of the market and license of the pharmacy cancelled. "Why can't an assurance be given that they will remove the product from the market and cancel the license of the pharmacy," she said.
Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad (Congress) said sex ratio in North India, particularly in Haryana, Punjab and Delhi, was a matter of concern and such products must be banned and people behind it punished.
When TMC MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy TMC displayed the product brought by Tyagi, Naqvi asked if any member can show such products. Kurien said it cannot be shown.
Roy demanded that the government must suspend sale of the product pending inquiry.
"We need not fight this... If there is an effort...with regard to selection of sex through a medicine, or pre-natal sex determination, they are all against the law. If this is being encouraged by any state government, it is against the constitution. But chair cannot do anything," Deputy Chairman P.J. Kurien said.
Naqvi said: "This is not an issue to argue on. We will tell minister to probe it whether it is in accordance with law."
Nadda also intervened and said: "This is related to department of Ayush (Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy). Government is serious about the matter. We will look into it and action will be taken."
Nadda again said the prime minister is personally monitoring the 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' scheme.
Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said that many spurious medicines are being sold and the health minister should inquire into it.
The website of Divya Pharmacy prices the product at $10.99 and the description says it is a "unique herbal product of putrajeevak which is aphrodisiac, controls habitual abortion and helps in sterility".
The dosage instruction says: "Make a fine powder of both Putrajevak and Shivlingi seed, take an hour before breakfast & dinner with milk of cow having calf".
