Yoga guru Ramdev assures Delhi HC of not posting offensive content against Hamdard
New Delhi, May 2 (PTI): Yoga guru Ramdev on Friday gave an undertaking in the Delhi High Court saying he will not issue any disparaging statement or publish on social media, posts similar to his "sharbat jihad" remark against Hamdard's Rooh Afza.
Justice Amit Bansal, who on May 1 ordered removal of the controversial online content, asked Ramdev's counsel to file an affidavit during the day.
A similar undertaking was also tendered by Ramdev's Patanjali Foods Ltd.
The court passed the order while dealing with a lawsuit by Hamdard National Foundation India against Ramdev and his Patanjali Foods Ltd over the controversial remarks.
Hamdard claimed while promoting Patanjali's "gulab sharbat", Ramdev alleged the money earned from Hamdard's Rooh Afza was used to build madrasas and mosques.
On April 22, the court sought an affidavit from Ramdev and Patanjali that they shall "not issue any statements, social media posts or disparaging videos/advertisements in future similar to those which are subject matter of the present suit in respect of products of the competitors."
Ramdev's remark of "sharbat jihad" on Hamdard's Rooh Afza, the court said, was indefensible and shook its conscience, prompting the Yoga guru to assure he would immediately take down the related videos and social media posts.
On Friday, Hamdard's counsel said instead of taking down the objectionable YouTube video in terms of an earlier order, the defendant had only made it private.
Ramdev's counsel, on the other hand, said he had "great respect for the court" and its directions would be complied with.
"We have 24 hours, we will comply," he said while urging the court to dispose of the lawsuit.
The court then posted the matter on May 9.
On May 1, after the court warned of initiating contempt action against Ramdev, his lawyer assured that certain objectionable content which was subsequently published would also be deleted within 24 hours.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
