Brinda: No bones about medicine, it’s a labour row

At a press conference held at the CITU office today, Karat changed tack, saying he campaign was against the violation of labour laws and the Drugs and Cosmetics Act at Ramdev’s ashram.

The CITU and Karat had, in 2004, brought up the issues of non-payment of minimum wages and absence of trade union rights at the ashram. The use of animal bones had also been raised at the time, but the complaint against the ashram to the Labour Ministry was only about labour law violation, Karat said. ‘‘It is wrong to say that your medicine is herbal and put something else in it…Our party, our campaign is not against Ayurveda or yoga,’’ was all she had to say today, adding that the ingredients should be listed on the label.

‘‘The major issue is of violation of labour laws in Divya Pharmacy and attention should not be diverted from this issue,’’ she said. The primary problem, she reiterated, was that the Hardwar Pharmacy had not honoured a tripartite agreement between the state government, the pharmacy and the agitating workers in May last year relating to the retrenchment of 113 workers.

Karat brought with her about a dozen former workers from Ramdev’s ashram for the press conference. One of them, Sushma Mishra, said workers had to put in long hours, from 8 am to 6.30 pm and women were not exempt from undertaking loading work. She said she was asked to grind animal bones and when she refused, was asked to leave.