Ayush officials take strong stand against ‘mixopathy’, but say no conflict with modern medicine

However, Patwardhan later issued a statement on the matter. “There should be no ‘mixopathy’ practice in the country. It is not acceptable to me too. I won’t promote something like that,” he said.

Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha, secretary, Ayush, also denied accusations that the two medical fraternities were at loggerheads. “No, there is no conflict of interest between modern medicine and AYUSH practitioners. We are cordial and during the COVID-19 pandemic, many were using alternate medicine practices as a supplementary method. For research as well, we have done important link-ups. I don’t think there is a conflict,” he said.

On Wednesday, a pact was inked between Ayush institutions like Teaching and Research in Ayurveda, Jamnagar, National Institute of Ayurveda, Jaipur, Rashtriya Ayurveda Vidyapeeth, New Delhi, and Centre of Excellence in Ayurveda at SPPU, with the aim to establish a collaborative network of institutions working in interdisciplinary areas of AYUSH.

The pact focuses on developing scientific research, capacity building, promoting faculty members to take part in various courses, conferences, seminars, congresses, organising training programmes for AYUSH teachers, students, clinicians and researchers.

Patwardhan said there was always an accusation about little research in the AYUSH system, and that it was not documented properly. He added that as a solution, top institutions needed to come up with a standardised protocol and also do collaborative work.

“There was a need for a common platform for strengthening these systems and also training manpower. To this purpose, this consortium has been formed,” he said.