Ramdev's 'Putrajeevak Beej' under scanner

Haryana has one of India's worst girl-boy ratios — in some villages men remain unmarried, and the preference for male children persists. Against that backdrop, a product name set off a national controversy.

Divya Pharmacy, the chain associated with Baba Ramdev, sold a medicine called "Putrajeevak Beej" — a name critics said promised women a male child, with Ramdev's followers openly describing it that way. The product and what its name implied came under media and parliamentary scrutiny.

Ramdev pushed back, insisting it was only an infertility drug. "The name has simply been derived from its scientific name, Putranjiva roxburghii Wall, and has got nothing to do with the promise of a son," he said. "Lying in the Parliament is a national crime."

Madhya Pradesh banned the product's sale anyway, saying it could return once Patanjali Yogpeeth changed the name. Ramdev refused to rename it but agreed to add a disclaimer.

The yoga guru, no stranger to controversy, also took a swipe at Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Bachchan — who had demanded a ban on his pharmacy products — saying she was doing so because she was "not getting any opportunity to act in movies these days."

Whatever the pharmacology, the episode underlined how a name alone can collide with India's deepest anxieties about the girl child.

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Based on reporting by IBNLive and others, May 2015.