Coronil comes as a shot in the arm for Ramdev’s Patanjali

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Editor's note: Disclaimer: All names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this story are true, no matter how absurd and paradoxical they may sound. *** A retailer in the national capital says he gets 50-60 calls every day, enquiring about the availability of Coronil, Patanjali’s ayurvedic remedy for COVID-19. Another says he received more than 150 calls a day last month, when Coronil was in short supply. He sells 15-30 Coronil kits every day on an average.  A third retailer spends a couple of minutes explaining the merits of the Coronil kit to me. It consists of Coronil tablets, made from tulsi, ashwagandha and giloy; another concoction of more than a dozen medicinal herbs; and a herb-infused oil. The man insists there is nothing purer than Coronil. Not the food we eat, not the water we drink, not even the air we breathe. A store owner in Mumbai is ready to even ship the kit to my doorstep, as many as I want. Strangely enough, the government of Maharashtra banned the sale of Coronil in February this year. The kit is priced at …