On November 11, in an interaction with The Economic Times, Patanjali chief executive Acharya Balkrishna, said that the company is ‘not averse to working with multinationals as long as it doesn’t clash’ with its values. He said that there are several MNC’s that has approached Patanjali. He furthered that they are not being refused merely because these business deals are being offered by multinationals.
The regular gossipers were quick to pick up this statement made by Acharya Balkrishna and without verifying the facts, misconstrued and represented it, to falsely malign Yoga guru Baba Ramdev, questioning his ideologies. Balkrishna’s statement was interpreted as if he said that Patanjali is in the process to sign agreements with various multinational companies.
The All India Mahila Congress took to Twitter to say that Baba Ramdev-led Patanjali Ayurved, which has always positioned itself as a swadeshi brand, is leaving behind ‘Swadeshi’ and collaborating with MNCs. Calling this stance hypocritical, the Congress chattels said that guru Baba Ramdev who made fortunes riding on ‘Swadeshi’ & nationalism has now displayed his hypocrisy by collaborating with multinationals.
https://twitter.com/MahilaCongress/status/1195914677730992130?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Many media houses also took the wrong way and reported that Baba Ramdev-led Patanjali is opening to collaborate with ‘videshi’ MNCs.
Advocate Nazma Fatima Khan, describing Baba Ramdev as ‘paltu’ said the companies with whom Ramdev claims to be in a war with, will now enter into an agreement with him. Sharing a report by India Times, which yet again had a misleading headline, Khan tweeted with hashtag ‘shut down Patanjali’.
https://twitter.com/najmafkhan/status/1195910013081903104?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
However, Baba Ramdev took to Twitter to give out an explanation of what Balkrishna’s statement actually meant. Clarifying that Patanjali has never accepted foreign investments till date and will never do so ever in future, Ramdev said that what Balkrishna meant was that these companies would be used only for distribution of Patanjali products abroad.
This meant that in order to increase its outreach within countries where Patanjali does not have any direct distribution facility the company might tie-up with these companies.
https://twitter.com/yogrishiramdev/status/1194798522505129984?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
In his tweet, Ramdev assured that Patanjali will not collaborate with any foreign company but if the goods manufactured in India could be sold in foreign countries it would only strengthen the ‘swadesi’ campaign.