Not repeating mistakes after an apology is vital

Patanjali co-founder ‘Baba’ Ramdev and his close aide Acharya Balkrishna. Pic/X

For days now, reports have been coming in about the court rapping Patanjali Ayurved Limited co-founders yoga guru Ramdev and Balkrishna on several fronts stemming from misleading and unverified claims by them. In the latest twist, the duo on Wednesday issued a new public apology in newspapers a day after the Supreme Court questioned them about the size of the previous apology over misleading advertisements.

The fresh apology, titled "Unconditional Public Apology," covers a quarter of a newspaper page, said reports.

An excerpt from the text of their apology says: ‘in the wake of the ongoing matter before the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India, we in our individual capacity as well as on behalf of the company, unconditionally apologise for the non-compliance or disobedience of directions/orders of the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India'.

Most importantly, the apex court on Tuesday said the public apology to be given in newspapers by Patanjali and its founders for violating its order must be of same display in which the company advertised its products and hinted that small sized apology in some corner of a paper will not be sufficient.

We cheer the court's non-negotiable stand and insistence that the apology be as prominent as the fake claim ads the company had put out.

All this is shocking, given the reputation and immense influence that the company and its face, Baba Ramdev had built through the years. One may or may not agree with him on all counts, but there was no doubt that the yoga guru had legions of followers and all of them could have been swayed by his dissing of allopathy and claiming his products combat several ailments.

In one fell swoop the guru and his company have lost face, credibility and a lot of faith reposed in him by millions. The regain reputationasan a may be incredibly difficult to execute.